Spoiling all hopes projected by grand events organised to mark the Environmental day on Tuesday, about 50 mangrove trees were found destroyed on the banks of Ashtamudi Lake at Asramam alongside the Link Road on Wednesday.

The act was clearly mindless activity of the officials, while conducting a pre-monsoon cleaning of a culvert that leads to the lake.The trees belonging to endangered species including Ceriops tagal, Excoecaria indica, Sonneratia caseolaris and Aegiceras corniculatum were the destroyed, said a statement by the Kerala Sasthra Sahithya Parishad(KSSP), which demanded action against the offenders.