Panaji: In Goa, coconut tree will no longer be a tree! Reason, if it were to remain a tree, each time one has to cut the coconut tree, they needed permission from the forest department. That it would no longer be a tree was formalized at a state cabinet meeting chaired by chief minister Laxmikant Parsekar on Friday.The logic: “The definition of a tree is a plant with main trunk and branches but a coconut palm does not fit into this criteria as it has no branches,” former deputy conservator of forest and then tree officer, Subhas Henriques said.With its new found status, as per an amendment proposed by the government the state cabinet decided to delete coconut tree from definition of the tree. “This will allow people of the state to cut the coconut tree without permission of the forest department.”For this, the government has approved the amendment to the Goa Daman and Diu Preservation of Trees Act, 1984 and an amendment to dimensions of a tree.Speaking to TOI, Parsekar said that after certain years, a coconut tree is inevitably cut. The amendment seeks to omit coconut tree from the definition of a tree as in Section 1-A. The definition included the coconut tree.Complaints of people regarding danger posed to their life or property by coconut palms in neighbour’s property were being resolved by the district collectors.The cabinet note stated that during the amendment of the Goa Preservation of Trees Act in 2008, Section 1-A was inserted in the Act to include provision for removing and disposing off trees which pose imminent danger to life or property.The provisions of the original act was not applicable to coconut tree and was brought under the purview of act during amendment of 2008 by insertion of Section 1-A regarding definition of term ‘tree’ and Section 12-A regarding ‘removal of trees’ etc; which are in ruinous state or likely to fall.The cabinet note said that though the amendment was intended to include coconut tree only for this specified section of the act, all the other provisions of the act became applicable due to lack of adequate clarity. Hence, the government proposed to delete Section 1-A and include coconut tree in Section 12-A.The state government also changed the definition of tree and for that the cabinet approved amendment to Section 2(j) by modifying the dimensions of the tree prescribed in the act to 10cm in diameter from 5cm in diameter at a height of one metre from the ground level from existing height of 30 cm from the ground level.