BENGALURU: Bengaluru has seen the return of its trademark monsoon, with short but intense torrential showers raining down on evenings. As usual, this marks the return of slushy roads, leaky buses and trees crashing down on unsuspecting commuters.
All across Bengaluru, several have toppled over in the storms, causing severe damage to the surrounding area and hours of power failure. But what can be done to reduce the casualties and keep the city’s fast disappearing canopy?
Prof K Sankara Rao, who works at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at IISc, highlights a key reason behind the weakening of the trees: "The main problem is that many of Bengaluru’s trees’ roots are not capable of sustaining their canopies.
When the trees’ roots are encased in concrete, they begin to rot because they lack sufficient oxygen, and because the mycorrhizal fungi which help provide nutrition also begin to fail in their functions. Due to this, the rush of wind and rain make the rotting roots collapse.”
Manvel Alur, CEO and Founder of Environmental Synergies in Development, raises a more fundamental problem with the trees themselves. “The majority of the trees which are falling now are the larger, older trees,” she says.
“Many of these trees are not indigenous to Bengaluru and its climate, and have become quite weak over the years. These trees are also poorly maintained and frequently get attacked by termites, leading to their eventual fall.”
Both experts say that haphazard pruning of trees done by the BBMP to make way for the electrical wires also leads to the loss. Prof Rao says, “When these trees are damaged so frequently, how can they be expected to grow healthy? The electrical wire system should be built to avoid the trees instead.”
The solutions for this issue are multi-layered and they start with a change in mindset followed up with heavy investment. Prof Rao emphasises on BBMP’s role and says,"The BBMP should gather specialists in the field, who can make more scientifically informed decisions regarding what trees are planted, and where.”
Alur says that we should not forget the larger picture of the rapidly changing climate. “There will be increasingly heavy rainstorms,” she says. “And we should keep this in mind when we are thinking of the solutions.”