'Collapse of trees due to rains is unnatural'

Saturdays rainfall caused the felling of 123 trees including branches across the city causing experts and activists to worry about the unnaturally high numbers Experts have condemned haphazard concretisation trenching and hacking of branches of trees activities which lead to such a high number of tree falls every monsoonA 35yearold tree was uprooted at Dadar during Fridayrsquos downpour PicRane AshishThe city experienced rainfall on Saturday as well which was 10 per cent of the seasons average Apart from reports of parts of building slabs and plasters collapsing and short circuits the city had hundreds of complaints of trees or theirbranches fallingThe Western suburbs recorded the highest number of tree or branches falling 71 71 followed by the island city 36 and eastern suburbs 23 City experts have termed this high number within last 24 hours as unnatural since not all the trees which had fallen were old or aging Also they are questioning how rain trees or even banyan trees which are not known to fall in the monsoon have been falling over the past five years showing a changing trendExpertspeakEvery monsoon the BMC undertakes trimming of trees for which it has a separate budget But we are increasingly seeing rain trees dying in the city which was not the trend some years ago Sometimes even banyan trees fall in the monsoon said ecologist Anand PendharkarRain trees have been actively killed due to rampant concretisation Sometimes trees coming in the way of developmental projects are poisoned on purpose Besides the BMC lacks the expertise and the sincerity to proactively gauge weak trees and save them from falling which causes a risk to life and traffic The BMC does not have a taxonomist an ecologist or a horticulturalist to supervise its activities They dont even put the necessary tree guards he addedBesides the BMC may conduct trimming of branches in such a way that the tree becomes imbalanced and eventually fallsActually the BMC should map the pattern of the kind of trees that have been falling in the past decade and plan accordingly They should plant or transplant trees considering the wind corridor soil type species and surfacehellip they should have a policy in place for the species to be planted said environment activist Rishi AgarwalAgarwal also stressed the need to identify trees which fall in waterlogged spots and prevent them from weakening He suggested the construction of soak pits every 100 metres which will soak in rainwater maintain groundwater levels and also prevent flooding around tree roots Even BMC officials admit that it is the rampant road and footpath works which weaken tree roots which leads to healthy trees fallingBMCspeakYes the pattern of tree falls in monsoon has changed and the only reason for it is concretisation I had written letters to various departments of the BMC and ward offices to have better coordination in the matter We had even removed accumulated asphalt from near tree roots But it cant be said that trimming is done haphazardlyWe did a survey of trees last year and based on several factors decided which trees needed trimming said Vijay Hire superintendent of gardens BMC But even Hire admitted that the tree which fell on a lady in Agripada on Friday killing her was perfectly healthy Hire is now coordinating with the disaster management department in the matter