Translocation of trees in Adilabad town — a first-of-its-kind effort in erstwhile undivided Adilabad district taken up by the RB and Forest departments — has not been as successful as had been expected, going by the survival rate of the shifted trees.
Owing to widening of the old NH 7 between RIMS Hospital and Girls High School in February, 133 trees of various ages, sizes and types were translocated but only 59 of those have survived.
The low rate of survival thus calls for an area- and species-specific relook into the concept of translocation which would in any case be cut for developmental activities. This could help formulate a policy on tree translocation, a practice which is slowly gaining ground slowly and proving lucrative business as well.
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“Our effort in shifting the trees to other locations was very basic. We just took out the trees with roots and planted them elsewhere without incurring any expenditure,” recalls Adilabad Forest Divisional Officer V. Chandra Shekhara Rao.
“Experts do the same things using sophisticated machinery and root treatment processes. Those involve huge expenditure,” he adds.
The species of trees translocated in town were rain trees (Samanea saman), gulmohar (Delonix elata), akasha malle (Millingtonia hortensis), tabubia (Tabebuia argentia) and ficus. These trees were planted by the side of roads in new housing board colony, Durganagar, and Dubbaguda road.
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“The success of translocation depends on the season in which it is done and the species involved. For example, ficus trees stand a better chance of survival as the species is sturdy and not as sensitive as others,” opines E.N. Murthy of the Botany department, Satavahana University, Karimnagar. “Hot temperature translocation is not conducive for many species,” he points out.
It has been observed that even the ficus translocation was not successful elsewhere.