Kerala: Poll heat blunts pruning of trees

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In what can be perceived as an early warning, many trees have been uprooted in the past three days’ drizzle at Peroorkada, Vattappara and Mannanthala,  including the wild jack tree that seriously damaged two buses at the  Peroorkada depot on Tuesday. During early June, 2015,  a bystander had died inside Peroorkada ESI hospital when  a tree branch fell on him.

With the corporation officials engrossed in elections and the KSEB unscientifically pruning trees that only affect their assets, the citizens are in danger. “It’s not an impossible task to prune dangerous trees as you need  to monitor only a limited number of ones on the arterial road sides. We have been asking district administration to make a list of trees and fix their health card to ensure adequate pruning or rejuvenation of trees,” said Treewalk co-founder Anitha Sharma.

The corporation is yet to set up a dedicated garden department to monitor tree health. The tradition in the city is to call fire force when trees dangerously lean into the traffic. The pruning by other stakeholders begins only after the first wave of monsoon kicks in.

With exotic trees not suited for Kerala’s monsoons being planted on the main roads as  part of beautification drive, citizens have become more vulnerable.   
“Most of the pruning by KSEB often involves shaving of branches on one side of a tree affecting the overall weight distribution of tree,” Ms Sharma added.

The city corporation top brass said that the pruning will be taken care of around school reopening as the machinery is engrossed in elections. The first wave of monsoon is expected in the last week of May itself.