Mangaluru: As powerful winds blew and rains lashed the district, a huge mango tree fell on the road causing a traffic block at Bendur cross here, on July 9.
The incident took place around 7:55 pm. Our correspondent received a call at 8 pm and immediately reached the spot and informed the concerned authorities of the Traffic, Fire Brigade and Forest Department. The traffic was blocked for a short while. ACP of Traffic, Uday Nayak responded immediately and sent police personnel to clear the jam.
The fire brigade reached the spot in 25 minutes and cleared the road for free flow of traffic.
Later, the Mangalore City Corporation acting Engineer Nithyanand reached the spot. Speaking to mangalorean.com, Nithyanand said that more than 8 trees have fallen in various places in the city. “When this happens, we need to clear them quickly,”
Speaking to mangalorean.com, a resident of the area said, “Thank God that the tree fell at this time. If the tree would have fallen in the afternoon, there would have been many casualties because school children and college students use this same road to go to college and school. In the afternoon, many parents come to pick their children and they park the vehicles under the tree. Vehicles too stop at the place when the signal is on. There is another huge tree at the same place which may fall anytime. The concerned departments should be proactive and cut down such trees instead of waiting till the tree falls. The forest department should identify such trees which pose danger to the public and take appropriate action in time.”
Even though it was raining heavily, employees from the Horticulture Department and the police along with the Fire Department personnel helped to clear the tree from the road. Area Corporator Naveen D’Souza also reached the spot. The traffic police did a wonderful job in controlling the traffic.