Imbalanced growth in trees can cause hours of darkness! Both power distribution and GHMC officials concur on this. Tree canopy spreading on one side of the stem causes majority of tree collapses in the city, they aver.
Trees getting uprooted and falling on electrical lines, resulting in hours of power outage is a common phenomenon during stormy weather.
A number of full-grown trees got uprooted and fell on power lines when rain lashed the city on Wednesday.
Nearly 25 incidents of power supply disruption due to trees falling on power conductors were reported in the areas covered by the CPDCL Metro Zone. No such record is maintained with regard to the urban areas of the Ranga Reddy Zone.
Making matters worse, starting from a minimum of an hour-and-a-half, the duration of outages ranged to several hours in some areas.
“A big tree fell on power lines in a colony under the Vittalwadi substation, resulting in the collapse of the corresponding pole, which in turn fell on the transformer supplying power to an apartment complex and brought it down. It caused havoc, and power could be restored at the complex only after 24 hours,” said Metro Zone Chief General Manager A.G. Sateesh Kumar.
He attributed tree falls to imbalanced growth of branches due to constant pruning on one side. In case the wind blows in the same direction, the tree is destined to fall, often on power lines passing by.
In fact, CPDCL is the biggest utility that pays to get the trees pruned. However, pruning is done towards the lines, and not the other side.
GHMC Additional Commissioner (Urban Biodiversity) N. Chandramohan Reddy too attributes tree falls to imbalanced growth.
“We are avoiding trees with brittle stems such as Gulmohar and Millingtonia and planting trees with pliable stems which include various varieties of Ficus. We shall also steer clear of footpaths henceforth and plant only on central medians,” Mr. Reddy said.
Trees on central medians will have scope for equal growth on all sides, while growth is imbalanced in those planted on footpaths, as they are lined on one side by concrete structures, he added.
