After 57 trees fall in 2 days, Mumbai civic body’s pruning exercise under scanner

The Mumbai civic body said it had pruned 60,000 trees in the city ahead of monsoon

With bad roads and potholes giving nightmares to motorists, Mumbai witnessed a sudden soar in monsoon-related incidents in the city. A day after a 57-year-old yoga teacher succumbed to her injuries after a tree fell on her in Chembur, another tree fall in Parel injured two people — a 75- year-old and a 65 -year-old - injured on Sunday. All these incidents have put the BMC’s tree pruning exercise under the scanner.

Each ward is inspected in the pre-monsoon survey and a list of trees that need pruning is prepared. (HT)

Both men were admitted and later released from KEM hospital.

According to data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), it had pruned 60,000 trees in the city ahead of monsoon. Despite this, three citizens — a teen, a 37-year-old man and more recently, a 57- year-old yoga teacher and former television presenter, lost their lives to tree falls.

On the whole, 57 tree falls were reported in the city in the past two days. Of these, 29 were reported from western suburbs, 14 in eastern suburbs and 14 in the island city. Four days of heavy rainfall last month uprooted 199 trees. In addition, 35 short-circuits and two wall collapses were reported by the civic body’s disaster management department on Sunday.

Each ward is inspected in the pre-monsoon survey and a list of trees that need pruning is prepared. In case of trees on private properties, the owners need to file an application with the BMC to either get the branches cut or pruned. The ward’s garden department takes the final decision after inspection.