Rainfall half of last year’s but tree-fall complaints more

Officials said the cell received 449 such complaints despite only around three good rain days in June this year,605 in August despite only around six good rain days and 135 from August 1-20 despite only two good rain days. However,many of the complaints about trees falling were actually about branches snapping.

Experts were,however,divided on the issue with some blaming authorities for the high numbers. “If the number of such incidents is so huge with such less rain,it obviously points to negligence. Maintenance of trees is not looked into; concretisation of the base chokes a tree,increasing its chances of falling. Precautionary measures like identifying dead and dangerous trees for trimming before monsoon are not being carried out,” said Niranjan Shetty,former member of the BMC’s Tree Authority.

Others said the amount of rainfall is not connected with trees falling. “The number of rainy days or amount of rainfall is not connected with the falling of trees. A tree falls due to haphazard growth. Also,there has been no sudden climatic change this year; after last year’s casualties,precautions have been taken. The number of incidents reported last year could be lesser,” said Avinash Kubal,tree expert and deputy director of Maharashtra Nature Park.

Kamalshankar Yadav,superintendent of gardens,BMC,said the figures are bogus and inflated. “They are recorded on the basis of complaints from citizens,who think that even a leaf falling is a tree fall. My officials have visited the spots; they have found that only 15 trees have fallen in the entire city in this season. As for trimming,loose,bent and dangerous trees are cut from time to time.”