A physician, Srinivasa Chowdary, had a miraculous escape on Sunday when decades-old peepal tree (Raavi Chettu) on Stadium Road fell on his car. Though the doctor, who was driving his car towards his hospital, escaped unhurt the vehicle was badly damaged owing to the impact of the strong and structured trunk of the tree.
“Everything happened in a jiffy. I was driving towards M.G. Road. Suddenly I saw darkness engulfing from my right side and a tree was all over my vehicle. I applied brakes and opened the door on the left side to set myself free,” said a shattered Chowdary.
Senior lawyer and sports administrator S.M. Sultan was lucky as he drove past the tree seconds before the incident. “I was proceeding towards the indoor stadium and I had a providential escape”. The incident evoked frenzied reaction among locals and dozens of onlookers gathered to take a look at the huge lifeless tree.
Says an emotional sexagenarian Nagaratnamma, who lives right opposite the fallen tree: “I nurtured the tree as a youngster. I used to fetch water from the nearby railway quarters in the 60s. I remember the comfort it
gave us during the hot summers. It gave us shadow and breeze. The very sight of the tree was stunning.”
Minutes after the incident the fire and municipal officers swung into action and half-a-dozen fire officers descended with battery-supported saws and axes. They started chopping the broadly- spread branches of the tree and in less than three hours they restored the traffic.
“Major portion of root has entered the drainage and it has weakened the tree considerably. The sanitary workers while cleaning the drainage tampered with the roots thus weakening them (the roots) further,” the locals pointed out. Locals also expressed their concern over a couple of trees on the stretch which had its roots underneath the drainage.
