LAHORE, May 28: Around two dozen trees will see the axe within a couple of days for linking a service lane for the Punjab University Boys Hostels with the Canal Bank Road.

Five fully grown-up of these — four eucalyptus and one kikar — had already been felled on Friday while earth around a sheesham tree had been dug and it might be uprooted any time.

Two sheesham trees and one shahtoot having a girth of around three feet and 11 young fancy trees are the next victims close to the Road Research Laboratory gate.

Ironically, the university already has a service lane for its hostels to their eastern side but another is being constructed to the western side along the canal bank, eliminating grass, hedges and trees at certain points.

Chaudhry Siddique, a retired employee of the Pakistan Printing Press, has set up a tea stall outside the laboratory gate under the shade of a cluster of eight neem trees, all of which have been uprooted around a month ago to clear way for the link road.

The university administration says they have no concern with the felling of the trees, denying reports that its men had uprooted some of them on Friday.

PU project director Sheikh Muhammad Ali says the service lane is being constructed by the communications and works department under the plan given by the provincial government while removing canal bridges linking hostels with academic blocks a couple of years ago. The project, he says, should have been completed six months ago.

“We have nothing to do with the cutting of trees. Only the communication and works department should be asked about the matter.”

A senior citizen from Defence Housing Society lamented that foreign rulers (the British) were more concerned about the local flora and fauna, as they deputed various writers to write books on the sub-continent and include listing of trees in their reports.

“In Tehqiqat-i-Chishti (a book on Lahore), the author has counted 210 trees in the courtyard of the shrine of Sufi poet Shah Husain,” he said.