Amazingly, the university began keeping record of the trees only this October, after Anil Kane took over as Vice-Chancellor and decided to open the garden to the public. The fallout is immediately evident: Professors of the botany department are shaky when asked how many trees the garden originally had, while admitting the thick foliage has thinned.

Officials say there are 100 varieties of rare trees out of the 200 full-grown trees in the arboretum. A senior professor of the department, however, said on condition of anonymity said there were at least 250 rare species of trees and at least 300 trees in the garden.

The garden currently has 32 neem trees and several creepers of bougainvillaea. ``The number of neem trees in the garden has remained the same because not many are interested in it; it has little value'', said a former professor of the department, leaving enough scope for interpretation in what was unsaid.

Garden supervisor Shailesh Patel admitted that the lack of security meant there was no control over who could enter. ``Eight men are needed for the proper security of these trees; at present, though, we have only two people on duty, and a temporary staffer in the evening,'' he said.

``We require Rs 30 lakhs just to maintain the garden,'' said a professor of the department. The in-charge head of the department Y Jasrai said, ``Our priority is to put a fence around the whole garden, appoint people for security and protect the trees that are still standing.'' However, not time-frame has been given.

That some of these trees are valuable is testified to by VMC parks and gardens director Mohan Patel. ``The branches of the sandalwood tree alone could fetch something between Rs 30,000 to 40,000; the trunk is even costlier.''

Jasrai added that they had already made a list of the number of trees which were there in the garden and plan to label them both in English and Gujarati for the convenience of the people. He admitted that there was a neglect and that was primarily due to lack of funds and manpower, but denied that there had been any illegal felling of trees. He said there is just one stump of a sandalwood tree in the garden, which too was cut since it had dried out.