visakhapatnam with the greater visakhapatnam municipal corporation gvmc going all out to beautify the city for the international fleet review ifr green lovers in the city are questioning the irrational selection of ornamental plant species and the unscientific mode of plantation according to them its a sheer waste of money as the plantation drive is being taken up as a sort of stopgap arrangement and will not serve any longterm purpose as the focus is on ornamental varieties instead sturdy indigenous species of trees could have been planted that would have provided permanent greenery and shade and made the city beautiful in the long run green lovers point out in some cases unsuitable saplings have been put on the road dividers while in some other cases cementing has been done around the plants planted on the pavements and the correct distance between plants have also not been maintained most of these plantations have taken place in the areas stretching from siripuram and pandurangapuram to beach road sridhar vaddi a member of green guardians society ggs said in the stretch from pandurangapuram to rk beach foxtail palms have been planted at close intervals say 15 feet instead of the ideal 24 feet to allow plants to spread out properly and already within a month of planting them the 1012 feet high trees are touching the electrical wires and if the main stem thats touching the electrical lines are cut the entire plant would die further on the beach road divider cycas revolta has been planted already the diameter of the plants is larger than the road divider which is barely of one metre wide now these plants are thorny and any vehicles or people passing by and touching the plants will get scratched at some places where plantation has been done on footpaths the base of the tree is cemented or tiled all around which will eventually kill the plants already the civic body is spending rs 700rs 800 per palm tree instead of rs 100rs 200 for ordinary indigenous plants which could have been shadebearing once the ifr is over these plants will be neglected and left to die added sridhar environmental activist and intach indian national trust for art and cultural heritage member sohan hatangadi averred there needs to be proper monitoring of the selection of species and scientifically planting them at proper intervals the plants need to be planted deep instead of being placed haphazardly by illiterate labourers instead of going only for the fancy expensive varieties shadebearing tamarind neem banyan could have been planted in some areas the indigenous palm trees tatichettu have almost disappeared from the city and seaside banyan trees are been axed in the city and outskirts the erosionpreventive casuarina along the coastline is also required so at some places these trees are also required again on the road dividers on beach road and siripuram grass korean carpet has been planted which is not suitable for the humid climate of vizag instead the mexican