Trees getting uprooted by gusty winds and crashing down on homes, vehicles and people has become a regular feature during the monsoon in the city. While there is much concern over the city’s vanishing green cover, old, decaying or diseased trees are posing a danger too.
While the Bangalore Electricity Supply Company (Bescom) has begun its pre-monsoon maintenance exercise of pruning tree branches that disrupt supply, the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is clueless about the number of trees in the city.
The crux of the problem is that a good seven years after the transformation of the erstwhile Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP), spread across 226 sq. km, into the BBMP, covering more than 800 sq. km, is yet to conduct a tree survey in the city essential in knowing which trees are to be cut and where new ones can be planted.
H.A. Kemparaju, BBMP’s Deputy Conservatory of Forests, said a tree survey has not been conducted since the civic body came into being in 2007. “When there is a problem, we act on the complaint filed by citizens. Tree officers inspect the spot if there is a complaint of an old or decaying tree and accordingly issue an order to either cut or prune it,” he said. BBMP officials said the Forest Department is plagued with budgetary constraints. The allocation was Rs. 10 crore for the entire year, from which 1.6 lakh saplings are to be planted, besides the provision of tree guards.
The civic authority has 13 teams to deal with emergencies, of which three are night teams. These eight-member teams have to cater to all sorts of work, ranging from clearing trees that fall during the rains to taking care of dead ones.
As no permission is needed to plant saplings, the debate over what species of tree saplings and where they should be planted is gaining currency.
The BBMP has stopped planting gulmohar and spetodia trees as they are too big. Planting of mahogany, honge, basavana pada in narrow spaces, and neem and jamun trees in bigger spaces is being encouraged.
A senior Horticulture Department official said “shallow-rooted” species such as gulmohar should be discouraged, while variants of the ashoka species of trees were best suited for the city. He also said enough space should be left around the roots and close concretisation should be avoided so that water can percolate easily.
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