Editor
IS there no hope for our Durban suburbs? What has happened to the residents who used to care for the environment and for nature?
There seems to be total selfishness concerning the cutting/poisoning of trees and the littering of our open spaces.
A tree takes many years to grow and is home to birds and gives shade to pedestrians on the sidewalks. It is an integral part of our environment and, until the last few years, to the character of our northern suburbs.
However, on a daily basis we witness another tree being ‘slaughtered’ and it is normally instigated by the home owners because of a selfish whim that it is marring a view or supplying the wildlife with food and refuge.
On recently checking with the Parks Board in Durban North as to why healthy trees on the corner verge of Old Mill Road and Kenneth Kaunda Road had been cut down, we were informed that ‘the house owner requested it’. Since when can the public just request that trees be felled on verges? Or is there something going on which we are not being told about? (I would like an answer from the Parks Board on this matter).
For those of us who love and revere sub-tropical Durban, we are totally mystified as to why people buy houses with gardens when they obviously do not care one iota for nature, and the first thing which is done is to fell the trees and pave the gardens.
So why buy a house and not an apartment or live in the city? Soon we will look like an oasis with just palm trees and no other vegetation.
I have a very sore heart.
Juliet Seidl
Durban North
