Caution! Gusty Winds during Monsoon Can Bring Many Dilapidated Trees Down Anytime

Caution! Gusty Winds during Monsoon Can Bring Many Dilapidated Trees Down Anytime

Caution! Gusty Winds during Monsoon Can Bring Many Dilapidated Trees Down Anytime. During Friday’s Phone-In programme, two callers had called in about the old trees that pose danger to pedestrians and motorists. This comes in the wake of a tree falling on a school bus near Nantoor Junction on Wednesday. The City Police will shortly survey roads in the city and ask the Mangaluru City Corporation to prune the roadside trees that are likely to fall on motorists, said Police Commissioner P.S. Harsha in reply to a caller.

Mangaluru: In spite of falling tree branches and also trees getting uprooted and causing heavy damage to buildings, property, vehicles, and also injuring commuters, the district authorities/MCC Officials/Forest Department Authorities have not taken any action in trimming branches or chopping down old hazardous trees. In the past few days, after the city was lashed with torrential rains, with gusty winds, there have been quite a few incidents of trees being uprooted or branches landing on building/homes.vehicles and people. While Environmentalists and Forest Department Officials are quick enough to be at the spot to stop trimming or cutting hazardous trees, but when these trees come crashing down on vehicles, houses, walls etc, during that time you’ll not find any of the environmental activists nor forest dept officials. Why? I guess they are guilty!

If you browse through our reports on the dangerous trees that are waiting to fall and take away the lives of innocent citizens or injure others or even do a lot of damage to motorists and vehicles, then just click on the links of our earlier reports on the same issue at the end of this report. One such report is about the safety hazard posed by a bunch of trees leaning before you reach the Nanthoor junction from Kankanady Pumpwell, on National Highway 66-the name of the report was ” Caution: Leaning Trees near Nanthoor STILL Pose Danger to Commuters?“, published last year, and a few days ago the trees fell on a school bus, but luckily a bunch of children in it escaped unhurt. And just recently we had published yet another report- “Tree Planting is Good, but MCC should Take Care of the Falling Old Trees FIRST?“.

During Friday’s Phone-In programme, two callers had called in about the old trees that pose danger to pedestrians and motorists. This comes in the wake of a tree falling on a school bus near Nantoor Junction on Wednesday. “The city police will shortly survey roads in the city and ask the Mangaluru City Corporation to prune the roadside trees that are likely to fall on motorists. It was good fortune that students escaped unhurt after a huge tree fell over a school bus near Nanthoor junction recently after the downpour. We will shortly undertake and identify roadside trees that are likely to cause hardship to motorists, said Police Commissioner P.S. Harsha in reply to a caller.

Even after Mangaluru saw this tree falling on the school bus, no one from MCC has taken precaution in trimming branches of old trees that are too dangerous. So coming to the point, lately while scores of old trees have fallen all over the city following strong gales, resulting in damages to vehicles and property, why haven’t the concerned authorities taken any precautionary measures. Most of the trees had no room for their roots to spread out and this led to gradual decay. In other cases, growing trees had their branches cut regularly on one side because they leaned on to private property; the trees grew up lopsided and leaned far on to the roads.

This means their remaining branches too were regularly being trimmed and they lost strength. The concerned authorities are expected to monitor a city-wide “tree census” to determine how many trees are really a danger to traffic or at risk of falling down during heavy rain and strong winds. Trees which are unable to bear the air pollution and decaying should also be identified. But seems like no one is doing their job right- and as a result, we have trees come crashing down on vehicles etc now and then.

A few officials from MCC say that when they are ready to trim or cut down old and hazardous trees, they are usually stopped by environment activists or Forest dept officials- so they are in a fix. On the other hand, the problem with our MCC authorities is that they wait till the trees fall, and then only take action–like many trees had fallen due to rains recently. The safety of pedestrians and of all road users should be the first and most important priority for National Highway authorities and also local authorities and also for a State body that has the responsibility in this area. Some of these trees may have disease, which is a clear indication of root rot.

Through this report, Team Mangalorean once again is asking as a matter of urgency with the concerned people at MCC and Forest department that old and hazardous trees are inspected and that those that appear in any way dubious should be promptly removed, or trimmed before they crash down resulting in injuries or death to motorists or pedestrians.

Also Read Related Articles:

• Tree Falls on School Bus near Nanthoor? Our Website had Warned about THIS Hazard Twice!