The decision to cut down more than 2600 tree of Aarey Forest in Mumbai was finalized by Indian High Court which in itself is huge disrespect to environment and on top of that authorities began cutting trees less than 24 hours after the High Court dismissed citizens’ pleas but according to law, cutting of tree should only begin 15 day after court order is uploaded on their website. Furthermore, cutting after sunset is illegal.
The actions taken by the authorities was not only illegal but was also irresponsible action as a human being in lot many ways. And at a point where country is going all about climate change, such an action clearly conveys that the government has no actual concern for environment. Its just for propaganda and fooling their citizens that the government is raising these issues. Where at one point they are encouraging use of digital media to reduce use of paper to save tree; this action that happened on 4th Oct 2019 not only completely destroyed a good section of flora but this has also destroyed our faith in current government and their false promises. This has proved that all this government thinks about is money incurred by them into a project but not about huge impact this was on environment front.
Now giving some scientific facts to this matter. We all know that we "humans" required oxygen to breathe and thus keep living and trees are one of the major source of this oxygen in air. But do we ever think about how much oxygen is produced by a tree or looking it other way around, how many trees a "human" being require to fullfil its need for oxygen in an year? Lets do some simple calculations for a bit now. As most of us might be knowing that oxygen in fauna is generally produced by a light dependent reaction called Photosynthesis. This photosynthesis produces six molecules of oxygen by taking in six molecules of carbon dioxide. By simple molar calculations one can calculate that a single molecule of carbon dioxide weighs 7.30x10-23 grams and a single oxygen molecule weighs 5.31x10-23 grams. So a photosynthesis reaction produces 31.86x10-23 grams of oxygen by taking in 43.80x10-23 grams of carbon dioxide.
According to 'Arguments for Land Conservation: Documentation and Information Sources for Land Resources Protection, Trust for Public Land, Sacramento, CA, December 1993' by Mike McAliney, a single mature tree can absorb more than 22 kg (48lbs) of carbon dioxide per year. So getting back to our dear photosynthesis reaction, for simplicity by using linear interpolation we can calculate, using above weights of CO2 and O2 molecules, that 22kgs of carbon dioxide lead to production of more than atleast 16kgs of oxygen per tree per year.
According to an article from BBC Science Focus magazine by Luis Villazon, an average "human" being consumes around 780kgs of oxygen in breathing.
Also, the amount of oxygen production by a tree does not remain same over its life time. Older a tree gets, more oxygen it produces.
Going by our stupidly simple calculations above and figures provided by Luis Villazon that around 100kgs of oxygen is produced per tree per year, a single human being would require atleast 7 to 8 trees to receive enough oxygen to breathe in an year.
If we map all of this to the matter at our hand, by cutting down 2600 trees government has depleted oxygen for around 325 living "human" being. So now do we understand the impact of their actions. And even if they say that they will plant new trees, these new trees will be able to release no where close to amount of oxygen released by much older trees in Aarey Forest.
The actions taken by the authorities was not only illegal but was also irresponsible action as a human being in lot many ways. And at a point where country is going all about climate change, such an action clearly conveys that the government has no actual concern for environment. Its just for propaganda and fooling their citizens that the government is raising these issues. Where at one point they are encouraging use of digital media to reduce use of paper to save tree; this action that happened on 4th Oct 2019 not only completely destroyed a good section of flora but this has also destroyed our faith in current government and their false promises. This has proved that all this government thinks about is money incurred by them into a project but not about huge impact this was on environment front.
Now giving some scientific facts to this matter. We all know that we "humans" required oxygen to breathe and thus keep living and trees are one of the major source of this oxygen in air. But do we ever think about how much oxygen is produced by a tree or looking it other way around, how many trees a "human" being require to fullfil its need for oxygen in an year? Lets do some simple calculations for a bit now. As most of us might be knowing that oxygen in fauna is generally produced by a light dependent reaction called Photosynthesis. This photosynthesis produces six molecules of oxygen by taking in six molecules of carbon dioxide. By simple molar calculations one can calculate that a single molecule of carbon dioxide weighs 7.30x10-23 grams and a single oxygen molecule weighs 5.31x10-23 grams. So a photosynthesis reaction produces 31.86x10-23 grams of oxygen by taking in 43.80x10-23 grams of carbon dioxide.
According to 'Arguments for Land Conservation: Documentation and Information Sources for Land Resources Protection, Trust for Public Land, Sacramento, CA, December 1993' by Mike McAliney, a single mature tree can absorb more than 22 kg (48lbs) of carbon dioxide per year. So getting back to our dear photosynthesis reaction, for simplicity by using linear interpolation we can calculate, using above weights of CO2 and O2 molecules, that 22kgs of carbon dioxide lead to production of more than atleast 16kgs of oxygen per tree per year.
According to an article from BBC Science Focus magazine by Luis Villazon, an average "human" being consumes around 780kgs of oxygen in breathing.
Also, the amount of oxygen production by a tree does not remain same over its life time. Older a tree gets, more oxygen it produces.
Going by our stupidly simple calculations above and figures provided by Luis Villazon that around 100kgs of oxygen is produced per tree per year, a single human being would require atleast 7 to 8 trees to receive enough oxygen to breathe in an year.
If we map all of this to the matter at our hand, by cutting down 2600 trees government has depleted oxygen for around 325 living "human" being. So now do we understand the impact of their actions. And even if they say that they will plant new trees, these new trees will be able to release no where close to amount of oxygen released by much older trees in Aarey Forest.
