Bengaluru: Though Bengaluru transformed itself from being a garden city to a silicon valley and suffered a major erosion of its tree cover, the boulevards that remain on the city’s roads are struggling to survive.
Rising pollution, unscientific pruning and concretization of footpaths, leaving no space near their roots, have made these trees vulnerable to rains and even mild intensity winds are enough to uproot them.
During the last monsoon, about 200 trees in the city got uprooted, 1,400 branches got damaged, and it led to the death of two people. This year, about 200 trees got uprooted and 1,500 branches fell killing five people in different parts of the city.
BBMP Forest Cell is to blame for the mismanagement of trees. Sources said the contractor lobby is also responsible for the mess.
The Tree Canopy Management teams under the BBMP Forest Cell are vested with the responsibility of clearing the fallen trees as well as uprooting, cutting or pruning of the dried or diseased ones.
Each canopy team comprises seven members, including a driver and a vehicle equipped for clearance operations. These teams have a major role to play during tree falls and waterlogging, but they are few in number and thinly spread out across the city.
Bengaluru comprises 28 Assembly constituencies and 198 wards, but there are only 21 Tree Canopy Management teams. They are mostly confined between central and south inner zones at the rate of four per zone. However, the east and west outer zones which comprise Rajarajeshwarinagar, Mahadevpura, K.R. Puram Bommanahalli and Yelahanka constituencies have only one each and they are woefully inadequate.
For instance, if a team is working in Rajarajeshwarinagar and something goes wrong in Kengeri, they will not be able to reach there on time.
No increase in teams
About two months ago, in a BBMP Council meet, the issue of shortage of canopy teams was raised by MLAs. They had demanded one team per constituency and the corporators too had ratified the same. Mayor Gangambike Mallikarjun and then Corporation Commissioner Manjunath had approved the formation of seven more Tree Canopy Management teams at the rate of one per constituency and entrusted the formation of teams with BBMP Forest Cell head Deputy Conservator of Forests Cholarajappa.
However, there has been little progress. Mayor Gangambike was not available for comments despite repeated attempts by Deccan Chronicle.
