After several tree-fall incidents, BMC urged to conduct annual tree audits

Back in 2021, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) initiated a scientific survey of trees in Mumbai through an arborist. The survey would involve assessment of the structural stability of the trees and identifying the decays by calculating a risk to benefit ratio. This survey was initiated on a pilot basis in D ward (Malabar Hill, Nepean Sea road) and in the first phase close to 150 trees were surveyed.

Meanwhile, after the July 11 incident former corporators have urged the civic administration to carry out a full fledged tree survey across all of the 24 wards of the city.

Ravi Raja, former Congress corporator and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in BMC in a tweet on Wednesday said, “One woman died after a tree branch fell in Malad. This is sad. Can’t the municipal administration inspect the trees and cut the branches ? Two accidents has happened in last eight days, @mybmc should wake up now and action should be taken against those whose negligence caused this.”

“Throughout our term in the past five years I have written multiple letters to the civic administration and had also urged the former Mayor to initiate a tree audit. The pre-monsoon trimming of trees is being carried out in an unscientific manner which doesn’t reap any result and tree collapse incidents become recurring every year. The administration should wake up and take this issue seriously now,” Vinod Mishra, a former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporator from Malad, told Express.

मालाडमध्ये झाडाची फांदी पडून १ महिलेचा मृत्यू झाला. हे दुःखद आहे. महापालिका प्रशासनाला झाडांचं इन्स्पेक्शन करून फांद्या पण कापता येत नाहीत? गेल्या ८ दिवसांत २ दुर्घटना घडल्यात. @mybmc ने आता जागं व्हायला हवं. ज्यांच्या निष्काळजीपणामुळे हे घडलं आहे त्यांच्यावर कारवाई व्हायला हवी

— Ravi Raja INC (@ravirajaINC) July 12, 2023

Mukul Mehra from Nepean Sea Road’s Citizen’s Forum (NSRCF), where the BMC carried out the audit on a pilot basis said, “There was a survey of trees carried out due to which the hazardous parts of several overhanging trees were also cut. This has resulted in a decline of loss to properties and life caused due to treefall in our area during the monsoon,”

Meanwhile, civic officials maintained that asking private agencies to audit the trees of Mumbai will only hamper the existing green cover of the city.

“There is no scientific evidence that tree collapse could be prevented by carrying out an audit. If we bring in private auditors there will be a conflict of interest. Developers may label any tree as unhealthy or partially decayed stating that they are obstructing infrastructure projects. Since trees can’t be repaired one needs to either pull it down or transplant it. Therefore, involving private parties for tree audit may only lead to exploitation of the existing green cover,” Requesting anonymity, a senior official told Express on Wednesday.

“The only way we can prevent these incidents is through the cooperation of citizens. The tree that collapsed yesterday was located in a private society, the society members should have told the ward office about the overhanging parts, following which our experts would have visited them and had trimmed it down. This kind of operation requires communication from both the ends,” the official said.

It is pertinent to note that ahead of monsoon every year, the BMC carries out pruning of the trees in Mumbai, the civic body also issues notices to private societies to trim portions of the trees inside their compounds as a precautionary measure.