Sir: Karachi is being deprived of its beauty and splendour slowly but steadily. Kashmir Road, a two-way carriage linking Shahrah-e Qaideen with Shaheed-e Millat Road, celebrated for its decades-old lush green palm trees, has been dispossessed of its magnificence. Photos featured in newspapers show that fully grown trees on both sides of the road have been chopped down mercilessly and have been left in heaps to be burned en masse.The cutting of such full-grown trees, which add so much to the beauty and grandeur of the city, especially at a time when Karachi has been deprived of its mangroves in the name of ‘development’, and when the country is facing the worst kind of deforestation, is an unpardonable crime in any moral or legal sense of the word.Given this immense loss, authorities must reduce the impact of this disaster by working out a plan to plant similar palm trees on both sides of the thoroughfare as soon as construction work is completed.I must add here that planting trees is not an activity reserved for the environmentally conscious of the West. Rather, it is a sustainable and easy way to improve our environment. Therefore, it is incumbent on us to not only preserve existing plant life but also add to it.ISHA M KURESHIKarachi