This has been a stormy summer for the National Capital Region in general and Delhi in particular. The climate of the month of May, which is largely associated with high temperature and dry winds has come to be replaced by periodic rain-laden wind storms.
In the past fortnight, the city has witnessed two major storms on May 17 and May 21. While during the first storm the wind speed was 40-50 kilometres per hour, the second storm had the speed of 70-80 kilometres per hour. No wonder that the second storm saw reporting of 200 plus incidents of uprooted trees, collapsed structures, and damaged cars. Earlier on May 2, Delhi was battered by 77 mm of rainfall in a single day — the second-highest May rainfall ever recorded. The damage was swift and exacting.
In a region which has a huge automobile presence, and where the keeping of cars in garages went out of vogue several decades ago, the falling trees especially on cars and buses draw a picture of absolute mayhem. Last Wednesday, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi received at least 54 fallen tree complaints and 21 more were received from the NDMC area. Many crashed onto vehicles, requiring long hours of removal.
While the establishment has blamed the incidents on the unpredictable weather conditions caused by climate change, the fact is that even during the Monsoon rains trees do fall in Delhi. The main cause for the falls are that these tall green structures may help record beautiful satellite pictures of thick green cover, however, these trees are rootless wonders.
While several factors are attributed for the rickety health of trees in the national Capital, the most important factor is the depleting water table in the region.
The falling groundwater table in Delhi is not merely a water management issue but a much larger calamity, it’s an ecological crisis that is silently killing the city’s trees.
Many tree species in Delhi, such as Neem, Jamun, Peepal, and Banyan, rely on deep root systems that tap into the water table, especially during dry seasons. As the water table has receded, these roots can no longer access the moisture they need. This makes their body - trunk and branches go dry, unable to withstand strong winds and falling apart.
There are several other explanations in addition to the major cause of the receding water tables for the uprooting of the trees. The other reasons often quoted is improper tree planting methods that is when the trees are planted in narrow sidewalks or alongside roads with limited space for root expansion.
The rapid pace of urbanization and infrastructure development too has taken a toll on urban trees.
Construction activities often damage root systems or change the natural flow of water around trees, causing them to dry up and turn brittle. Another major cause is lack of diversity in tree population.
Trees are largely planted in Delhi as part of government schemes like the afforestation drives. These drives are target oriented and aim to achieve certain degree of green cover density in short period of time. This often leads to planting of similar kind of fast growing trees across the city. No wonder the pictures of fallen trees from across the city have similar foliage.
These trees, as mentioned earlier, do not have long lives due to variety of reasons and are unable to withstand a storm. Many of these newly planted trees fail to survive due to inadequate watering, lack of deep roots to access diminishing groundwater and poor soil conditions impaired by low moisture. This results in high mortality rates among young trees, nullifying greening efforts and wasting resources.
The factors mentioned above have found reference several times but there has been no relook at the defective forestation policy. We live in ironical times, where the trees keep falling but still the green cover keeps increasing. There is a madness in this method and the lunatic forestation schemes need urgent rectification.