The civic body has blacklisted a billboard agency, which used to cut off trees to sell prominent spaces along city streets. Arun Sign Works, the agency, has to stay away from business in the city for chopping off as many as 11 debdaru trees to put up a huge billboard along EM Bypass.

The agency had no defence because municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay spotted its men on the job as he was passing by Parama Island near the Park Circus connector on Sunday afternoon. Bandyopadhyay immediately called up civic officials and asked them to stop the man from hacking the tress and destroy the hoarding.

A civic team led by Debasis Sen, the manager of KMC's advertisement department, reached the spot immediately and tore down the hoarding. However, by then, the debdaru trees had been hacked to pieces. An angry Bandyopadhyay later asked the KMC officials to lodge an FIR against the ad agency owners. "We have decided to blacklist the errant agency for five years. We have also urged the captains of the city's outdoor ad agencies to discourage felling of trees for putting up hoardings," Bandyopadhyay said on Tuesday.

Blacklisting an advertising agency means it won't be able to put up hoardings within the KMC jurisdiction.

Environmentalists are obviously happy with the decision. Environmentalist Subhas Dutta felt it was shocking that the agency was chopping trees in broad daylight without caring for an approval. "I am happy that KMC has decided to teach the errant agency a lesson, but the civic authorities should be more vigilant," he said.

Green activist Mukuta Mukherjee said it was high time the government or the civic body enhanced their vigil on felling of trees in the city. "It is surprising that trees are being chopped at random, and the government or the civic authorities are caught napping," she said. Mukherjee, however, praised KMC for punishing the agency. " We hope this kind of stringent action will discourage others from chopping off trees," she added.