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Fire department responded to more tree falling incidents than fire in 2020
Due to concretisation of roads and development, tree falling incidents are increasing continuously in the city
Due to concretisation of roads and development, tree falling incidents are increasing continuously in the city. According to the Pune fire department statistics, in the past two years, the department has responded to more tree felling incidents than cases of fire in the city.
The fire department registered 1,269 incidents of tree falling against 975 fire incidents from January- December-2019. In 2020, the fire department recorded 1,152 tree falling incidents whereas they got calls of 699 fire incidents.
Due to cyclone Tauktae, Pune city is also experiencing rain and strong winds. In the last two days, the fire department has registered more than 20 tree falling incidents across the city.
According to fire department statistics, tree falling incidents are increasing from 2015 in the city. In 2017, a total of 1,201 tree falling incidents were reported.
Not only environmentalists but also garden department officials allege that most of the trees that were standing on public land suffered damage or were lost due to negligence as the soil cover around these structures were lost to unscientific trimming or concretisation around them, forcing many to tilt during the rains and lose their stability.
Excessive concretization, road digging
Ashok Ghorpade, chief superintendent of PMC garden department said, “A major stretch of roads in the city along the internal roads owned by societies, have witnessed rampant concretisation over the last few years. In several areas, there is no soil left around the trunk of the tree. It is completely concertized thus stunting their growth. It does not get oxygen to grow, and it leads to plunge trees. Such trees will eventually collapse during the rains. Digging of roads for lying service lines or underground cables damages the roots of trees and uneven trimming of branches of trees is another reason trees fall in the city.”
During former civic chief Mahesh Pathak’s time, the garden department had issued circulation to the road department which had mentioned details of concretisation near trees. The PMC road department is also not following instructions of the garden department.
As per PMC road department officials, most of the corporators use their local ward development funds to concertise lanes and internal roads, more than ₹300 crore are spent on concretization of small roads.
Demand of maintenance cell
City based environmentalist Dr Sachin Punekar said, “The PMC has started rampant cement concretisation of internal roads or areas. It has completely stopped water percolation. Therefore, water is logging in the city and the tree’s holding capacity has gone down and they are falling down often in the city. The PMC garden department and tree authority should have to form a mechanism for tree maintenance. Trees are suffocating due to concretization. We cannot blame it on heavy rain. Trees are living entities. The PMC should have to diagnose tree falling phenomena as it is increasing in the city and work to minimise or stop it.”
NGT order
In 2014, the National Green Tribunal ordered in one of the hearings of Navi Mumbai based environmentalists that a three feet circumference around the trees must be kept free of any concretisation. This will help in the growth of the trees and will help retain their stability.
VG Kulkarni, chief superintendent engineer of the road department, said, “It is not the major reason for tree falling, it may be one of the reasons for tree falling. Uneven chopping of tree branches also imbalance trees and they plunge during heavy rains. We are taking precautions to provide adequate space for trees to breathe and grow naturally.”
PMC chief fire officer Prashant Ranpise said, “Due to the lack of soil around the trunk weakens the roots of trees and it falls down. Tree falling incidents have increased since the last few years in the city.”
