KOCHI:With monsoon gaining strength the people in the district are a worried lot. Besides water logging and a spurt in fever cases, they are worried about the dangerously slanting trees. People fear they will have to witness incidents similar to the one that happened in 2015 at Kothamangalam.
In June 2015, five children were killed and 11 injured after a tree fell on a school bus at at Kuthukuzhy in Kothamangalam. The days following the incident saw widespread protests against the lethargic attitude of the officials in axing trees that posed a threat to lives.
Thereafter, the then District Collector M G Rajamanickam had assigned RDOs to fell all the slanting trees. Challenging the order, a NGO had approached the Kerala High Court. The HC directed the authorities to ensure only those trees which posed a threat to lives are felled.
When Kochi Express called Ernakulam RDO office, it came across a disturbing fact-no trees deemed a threat to people have been felled before onset of monsoon. The officials even hadn’t bothered to identify the trees which needed to be felled. “It is the responsibility of the panchayat secretaries to supervise the felling. After the 2015 incident, it was made mandatory to axe trees that posed a threat to lives. Whenever we get an application or a complaint, we forward it to the secretaries,” said an official at the RDO office.
According to the officers at the RDO, till date only pruning work has been carried out.
“Before the onset of monsoon we had directed the panchayat secretaries to identify and cut dead trees. However, we have no idea whether any action has been taken,” was the response received from the RDO office.
However, the panchayat secretaries claim they permit people to fell trees whenever an application is received. But are yet to identify dangerous trees.
After the 2015 incident in Kothamangalam, the social forestry wing of the Forest Department had carried out a survey and identified around 160 trees along the roadsides that needed to be felled. “We hope the trees that we identified as dangerous have been felled.
After an accident which took place in Thiruvananthapuram in 2013, the then Chief Minister had waived the necessity of getting the Forest Department’s nod to fell slanting trees. These trees could be axed with the RDO’s consent. However, the Forest Department’s permission is needed to sell the timber,” Martin Lowell, Assistant Conservator of Forest, Social Forestry, Ernakulam said.
According to Forest Department officials, many people approach the department with applications seeking permission to cut the trees which are in the danger of toppling over. “We direct them to the RDO’s office,” they said.
The officials said in nearly all the accidents the rain tree had been the culprit. “Some of the trees along the roadsides are over 100-years-old. These rain trees have no deep roots and topple when the soil gets washed away during heavy rain. It is because of this reason, we prefer medium sized shade trees,” an official said.
Axing slanting trees
After the 2015 incident, the then District Collector M G Rajamanickam had assigned RDOs to fell all the slanting trees. Challenging the order, a NGO had approached the Kerala High Court. The HC directed the authorities to ensure only those trees which posed a threat to lives are felled.