BMC to trim over 1 lakh trees before monsoon

Owing to strong winds and heavy downpour during the monsoon, weakened trees often fall with their collapses taking a fatal turn, as the city witnesses several incidents of deaths and injuries during the monsoon months.

In a bid to curb such incidents, the civic body identifies dangerous as well as dead trees across the city and prunes them ahead of monsoon onset. In Mumbai, the official date of monsoon onset is June 11.

This year, following a survey of the 1.86 lakh large trees in its jurisdiction, the civic body identified 1,11,670 lakh trees alongside the roadside, which will be trimmed scientifically by June 7. On Sunday, the BMC said it has pruned at least 12,467 trees until now.

According to senior civic officials, the pre-monsoon works includes removal of dead and dangerous trees, trimming of overgrown branches, scientific care of the roots and trunks of the trees among other works.

Besides this, the civic body has also issued notices to 1,855 government, semi-government as well as private institutions asking them to trim the overgrown trees in a scientific manner and with prior permission from the BMC.

As per the tree census in 2014, Mumbai has 29.75 lakh trees. Of this, 15.51 lakh trees are on private premises and 10.67 lakh in government properties.