India, March 31 -- After a brief tussle over who should preside over the committee, the BMC has finally constituted the city's new tree authority - the panel tasked with safeguarding Mumbai's green cover.

A 13-member tree authority was constituted and their names announced during the general body meeting of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) general body meeting on Monday.

The committee includes five members from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), four from the Shiv Sena (UBT), two from the Shiv Sena and one member each from the Congress and the All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen. While the committee's composition depends of the relative strength of the political parties in the BMC, the members were nominated by thei...