3 min readChandigarhJun 6, 2024 10:07 PM IST
First published on: Jun 6, 2024 at 07:35 PM IST
It was 9 pm on Wednesday when Sunita Negi, working in the kitchen of an NRI’s house, heard a creaking sound. In no time the wall of the house collapsed on that windy night and part of the ground caved in after a huge mango tree in the backyard got uprooted in Sector 36 in Chandigarh. The tree fell into a neighbour’s house whose wall was being shared by them. The impact was such that the fabricated sheets installed along the border of the courtyard got crushed and damaged the neighbour’ roof’s cantilever.
The wind was blowing at a speed of 85 kmph, well beyond the Chandigarh Meteorological Department’s prediction of thunderstorms at 50 kmph, uprooting electric poles and trees at major junctions in the city. The thunderstorms, though gave some respite from intense summer heat, left several parts of the Tricity powerless.
Sunita Negi and her husband Surat Singh Negi stay at the backyard of the house as caretakers along with their son Aman. House owner D S Tung has been residing in the US for the past 10 years.
“My mother was working in the kitchen and she felt some sort of creaking sound since the tree was adjoining. She told me to go and tell the neighbours that the tree may fall as the wind was blowing at a high speed. No sooner we stepped out than the tree collapsed,” said Aman, narrating how his mother had a miraculous escape.
“Thankfully it didn’t damage much of the neighbour’s house but our part of the ground has also sunk and the small kitchen got damaged,” he added.
The residents called up the local councillor Jasbir Bunty who immediately informed the administration and horticulture wing to get the collapsed tree removed.
“We shared this common wall and the tree damaged our roof’s cantilever. Had the tree flipped in a slightly different position, it could have caused a loss to human life. Right now it is just the material damage,” Akshay, neighbour, told The Indian Express.
Councillor Jasbir Bunty said that he has urged the authorities regarding the risks posed by many trees standing adjacent to houses. “Fortunately there was no one at that time in the area or in the adjacent house when the tree fell. Else there would have been a causality,” Bunty said.
In another scary incident an electric pole in Sector 18 fell near the Tagore Theatre on its boundary wall. Another pole ahead of it was standing half bent. A mishap was averted in sector 43 where an electricity pole fell on government houses. However, it did not damage any window pane.
Meanwhile, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted another thunderstorm on Thursday evening with a wind speed of up to 50 kmph. Officials at the MET department said that the storm and rain brought down the minimum temperature to 22.2 degrees, which was 8 degrees below normal.
The thunderstorms, though gave some respite from intense summer heat, left several parts of the Tricity powerless. (Representational Image) 
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