Thiruvananthapuram is known for its rich line-up of trees. Many are cherished for their long history, rendering a homely, backwoods feel to the heritage city.
But come monsoon, the same trees loved for their charming canopy are feared and often hated, especially in recent times when rain brings down tree branches on pedestrians and vehicles.
Last year, several such accidents were reported. In one case, a Kollam native was injured at the Medical College junction after a tree branch fell on him.
In another, a man died at Nettayam after a branch fell on him. A 47-year-old riding pillion on a motorcycle was injured when a branch fell on the moving vehicle in the Palode area. Then there were many instances of several buildings being partially or fully destroyed in the monsoon fury.
But it doesn’t end there. The most recent case was on May 8, when an 18-year-old girl was seriously injured after a tree branch fell on her near University College junction.
The accidents call for immediate solutions, and in the haste of the process, the axe falls on the trees, often avoidably and indiscriminately, claim ecologists.
“The city has been witnessing such haphazard removal of trees in the past few years,” says Anitha Sharma of Tree Walk, a group of environmental activists who feel the approach of the authorities has to undergo a sea change if the problem has to be solved in an eco-friendly manner.
An informal audit by the Tree Walk has found that the city has lost 50-60 trees for road work or as preventive disaster management measures.
“Around 50 trees were removed along the Vattiyoorkavu-Peroorkada stretch and the Maruthankuzhy-Vattiyoorkavu section alone,” she says.
These include a tall blackboard tree, mango tree, silk cotton tree and great Indian ash tree.
Meanwhile, pruning of the trees is also being carried out randomly on the Vellayambalam-Kowdiar-Ambalamukku stretch, where the denuding of a large area near the Kowdiar Palace, once covered in thick foliage, is conspicuous. The trees along the Keltron wall, en route to Vazhuthacaud, have also faced the axe.
According to the Tree Walk team, a Small-leafed Mahogany near Secretariat, which was cut down last year, was in the list of rare trees presented to the district authorities.
“There are about 20 or 25 trees in the list. Can they not preserve them instead of completely cutting down?” asks Anitha, remembering a very rare Abraham Jamun tree at Ayurveda College junction, which has been pruned ahead of the rainy season.
According to her, if the process were carried out in consultation with experts, the trees would face only minimal damage by containing the branches to prevent disasters. “This will help maintain the health of the tree,” she adds.
Such an exercise to assess the health of trees in the city was carried out in 2014.
A team from the Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI) had issued health cards based on certain criteria — the condition of the crown, physical damage to the body, mechanical damage due to development work and misuse of the tree for hanging advertisements and lights, etc. The health card aimed to help the district administration to prune the tree when branches pose a danger.
Local body authorities claim there is already a tree committee in place to pitch in for the role of experts.
“The tree committee that is in place do the part of the experts,” points out former Corporation Health Officer A Sasikumar. He says that all decisions on pruning trees are taken in consultation with the committee. “When it comes to a threat situation, credence is given more to human life,” he adds.
But ecologists deny the proper functioning of the tree committee, alleging that even if it’s in place, it is not as sensitive to biodiversity as it was when constituted, adding that prior planning and in-depth study of the trees are required to tackle the situation effectively, and not last-minute or knee-jerk decisions.
“Usually, circulars empowering local administration to take action for the removal of hazardous trees are issued only when the monsoon strongly comes calling. We had requested the administration to prepare ahead for the season in February and invite experts from KFRI to study tree health. We even offered our expertise to carry out pruning, or cutting of trees if necessary, and replanting them,” says Dr Radha Gopalan, an independent environmental scientist.
Anitha says she and a team of Tree Walkers have already met with the district collector to discuss the issue. They are now planning to meet the Mayor.
Mayor V V Rajesh, however, says the administration has met with the Tree Committee twice.
“The committee has also seen some changes. And if need be, there would be changes in the steps taken to tackle the monsoon fall-outs. We are moving cautiously and will try not to do much damage to the ecology. We are aware that trees are one of Thiruvananthapuram’s hallmarks,” he adds.
Radha, hence, is hopeful. “But we have to wait and watch how things pan out this season. It is a delicate path to take, yet diligence and sensitivity can save lives, both of humans and of trees,” Radha concludes.
Tree Health
The health of Thiruvananthapuram’s trees is delicate due to many reasons, says Dr TV Sajeev, chief scientist at Kerala Forest Research Institute (KFRI), part of the team that prepared a health card for the city trees in 2014. He holds ‘indiscriminate development’ interventions as a reason.
“We found roots of several trees at strategic city points coiled up just below the surface of the soil, indicating a lack of space to spread out. Some are even getting snapped when roads are being reworked or drainage pipes are being cleared. These trees will fall off when there is even a small impact,” he notes.
Sajeev claims there is a pressing need for infrastructure projects to include the services of experts from KFRI or other research institutes to ensure a balance between development and ecology. “We often do not foresee the fall-out,” he says, citing the example of the Thiruvananthapuram-Kasaragod road work that led to the felling of around 8 lakh trees.
“The trees were the habitats of the ‘nipah-carrier’ bats that have now migrated to homesteads, causing a communicable disease threat. If the project had sensed this in the planning phase itself, an ecosystem could have been developed around the highway project where these bats could move to,” he says, adding any development project should aim at causing minimal ecological impact.