BENGALURU: The cooling showers on Tuesday were a welcome reprieve for the city's many residents. However, the downpour uprooted 63 trees and there were complaints of at least 75 branches falling down.
With the Forest Cell of the BBMP facing a severe staff crunch, the civic body is struggling to clear these trees overnight.
On Tuesday evening, the city witnessed 22 mm of rainfall as against 1.2 mm rainfall it commonly sees. Apart from the trees, water entered many low-lying areas, apartments and roads.
According to Deputy Conservator of Forests, BBMP, Chola Raju, the trees and branches were healthy and none of them were dry or weak.
"We have 21 teams, around ten in each shift. Each team has eight people, including a driver. Our staff are struggling to clear all the fallen branches,'' he said.
Raju said it takes at least an hour to clear an uprooted tree and load it into a mini-truck.
"We have four designated places to unload these trees and branches. It takes two to three hours to reach these places. Adding the time taken to load the tress, it would take at least four hours to five to clear one tree. Though the teams are equipped with men and machinery, we do not have cranes to clear big trees,'' he said.
"The teams consist of labourers. However, we do not have a range officer. The BBMP, which has eight zones, needs eight range officers. However,the Forest Cell does not have even one,'' said a senior official from the civic agency, on the condition of anonymity.