Gusty winds approaching nearly 120 kmph uprooted hundreds of trees in the city. Even though the wind spared none, felling all species of trees, exotic, non-native species, particularly the rain tree ( Kaatu vagai or thoongu moonchi ), peltophorum (yellow flametree) and gulmohur, bore the brunt of the fury.
“What we witnessed today is an extraordinary situation and the wind did not spare even the native species. Many trees on our college campus were uprooted. The calamity once again reminded us the need to plant native trees suitable for coastal areas,” said D. Narasimhan, head of the Department of Plant Biology and Plant Biotechnology, Madras Christian College.
He said many of the tree species were introduced to India by colonial rulers. “William Roxburgh, the father of Indian Botany introduced the Gulmohar, a native of Madagascar. The Rain tree is a native of tropical America, and peltophorum, a family member of thoongumoonchi , came from Malaysia and Sri Lanka,” explained Mr. Narasimhan.
In the case of many native trees, the wind could succeed only in breaking their branches. The two big vaagai trees in front of Khadi Gramodyog Bhavan lost many branches. But exotic trees were uprooted because they do not develop a deep root system. “The genetic make of exotic species allow them to develop a root system that is shallow and cannot withstand strong winds. On the other hand native species, particularly magilam, pungai, badam, kayamboo, poovarasu, and aatru poovarasu and punnai fully adapted to the coastal condition,” said K.V. Krishnamurthy, former head of the department of Plant Science of Bharathidasan University.
Mr. Krishnamurthy explained that coastal tree species were members of the dry evergreen forests spreading from Rajamundry to Ramanathapuram. “They can be seen in the eastern belt and always have leaves. In India the cyclone always blows from the east and the trees in the eastern side of the coastal belt developed an unique architectural design. You can never see these trees facing the sea side. Instead they face away to protect themselves from the wind,” he said.
