Exotic trees gone with the wind

While over 1,000 trees were ravaged, 250 were uprooted in IIT-M after Vardah hit the city. With green cover gone, the cyclone has taught an important lesson to city planners and policy makers on how t

Rescue personnel dousing a fire at a dumping yard for uprooted trees near Egmore Railway Station on Saturday | Express

CHENNAI: Severe cyclone ‘Vardah’ has taught an important lesson for city planners and policy makers on how to protect the last remains of green cover, so critical for maintaining  the ecological balance.
The main reason for such a large devastation of green cover in the city is because the exotic species did not withstand nature’s fury.

Hundreds of trees were ravaged in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Madras and Anna University premises that boasted of having a significant percentage of flora.  
An analysis done to find out the reasons showed that a majority of trees that were uprooted were non-native species.   

Green waste accumulated along Anna Main Road in Chennai has reduced carriage way by half as officials are yet to clear the mess;

V Srinivasan, senior horticulture Officer at IIT-M, said that it was mainly the non-native invasive trees which were uprooted. While more than 1000 trees were ravaged, 250 trees were completely uprooted. Amongst the uprooted, were mainly Kassod trees,  ‘Vanni’ and Yellow Flamboyant.

“Mainly the non-native invasive trees were uprooted. Besides these, a few neem, one or two banyan and six to seven Punnai trees were also uprooted,” he said. 

Of the 250 trees, nearly 180 were Kassod (Cassia siamea),   20 to 25 were Vanni (Prosopis cineraria) and 20 to 25 were Yellow Flamboyant (Peltophorum pterocarpum) trees. 

Vanni  is mainly found in America, Africa, Mexico, Caribbean and South Asia, while Kassod is in South East Asia and Yellow Flamboyant grows in South America. “These trees were 60 to 70 years old. But, in the campus we have nearly 7,000 palmyra or palm trees of the total 45,000 trees. Nothing happened to the palmyra trees. Of the foreign species it is mainly Prosopis which is dominating the campus,”he said. The institution has around 50 species, of which 30 are native trees,” he said.  

At Anna University, nearly 500 trees were ravaged,  of which 350 were uprooted. Like IIT-M, the university campus is also bestowed with Vanni, Yellow Flamboyant and Rain Tree amongst the non-native trees. “We have nearly 30 to 35 species in this university. While the traditional trees are more than 20 to 30 years old, the non-native trees are 30 to 40 years old,” said K Muruganandam, horticulture expert at the university.

G Gowrikrishanan, a student, alleged, some of the trees were not properly maintained. The root area was cemented not allowing water to percolate, which resulted in their falling down.