Random felling without supervision leads to a loss in tree’s balance, causing accidents
After four people lost their lives to incidents of tree falling last year, Municipal Commissioner Ajoy Mehta held a review meeting last week. He instructed his staff to ensure that tree pruning, set to begin this month, is done scientifically.
A senior BMC official said that during a meeting held on March 3, the commissioner insisted that all precautions be taken this year while carrying out the pre-monsoon tree trimmings to avoid any such unfortunate incident.
"A meeting has been called by Dr Kishor Kshirsagar, Deputy Municipal Commissioner (DMC), Gardens, along with the garden department, to discuss in details the methodology and steps that would be followed this year to ensure that pruning is carried out properly. Environmentalist and civic activists should have no reason to complain," said the BMC official. A meeting will also be held with contractors.
In 2017, Rajaram Yadav, a BEST employee, died in Borivali, while Kanchan Nath and Sharda Ghodeshwar lost their life in two separate incidents that occured in Chembur. In all the three cases, the death was caused by a tree falling on them.
Activists in the city have been alleging that tree pruning activity was left at the behest of contractors. The workers always chopped the thickest branches to get more wood. They barely bothered about maintaining the balance of the trees.
A senior botanist, who heads the Botany Department at a government-aided college in the city said that in majority of wards in Mumbai, improper pruning has disturbed the balance of the trees, making them vulnerable to collapsing. "There are a few wards where tree authorities have ensured that the trimmings are done properly. But, that's rare. It is hard to find a tree officer when the pruning is done," he said. A standard operating procedure needs to be followed; in case it isn't, citizens should not allow the trees to be pruned.
ALL ABOUT PRUNING
- 7,313 In five years, from 2012 to 2016, a total of 7,313 complaints of trees or its branch falling have been reported.
- In 2012 and 2013, the number of complaints were 1240 & 845 respectively. Thereon, in 2014, 2015 and 2016, the number of complaints reported were 1594, 1864 & 1765 respectively.
- 939 trees collapsed in 2017 as per disaster management department, BMC
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