Dozens of trees have been chopped down along city's presidential route, which links President Islam Karimov's residence to his office and the city airport. Local people say their expansive canopies provide essential shade in the city's searing summer heat, and a petition calling on the authorities to spare the remaining trees has attracted more than 3,000 signatures in just a few days. Tashkent is "becoming like an asphalt-concrete jungle", the petition says, describing the current felling campaign as "barbaric".
Thousands of people in Uzbekistan have signed a petition calling on the government to stop felling plane trees in the capital, Tashkent.