The AXE Stopper
(WorldNews Health)

For years, Mumbai-resident Zoru Bhathena had been plying from his home in Khar to Kandivali for business, marvelling at canopies of raintrees en-route. Suddenly, these began dying one by one. "There was a mealybug epidemic; infected trees would turn stone white and die. I counted 116 affected-trees just around my area. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s website indicated loss of 5,000 trees (across Mumbai) to mealybugs in five years, but nothing was being done about it," recalls Bhathena. Therefore, in June 2015, he filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL). "Initially, the BMC said raintrees are not from India and only live for 50 years, but records showing...