Concrete Curse: Urgent Call To Save Trees

Experts Suggest Survey To Identify Vulnerable Trees, Setting Up Central Body To Ensure Accountability

- Priyangi.Agarwal

New Delhi: A 100-foot-tall semal, or silk-cotton, tree fell in E Block of Greater Kailash II on Friday, damaging a few vehicles. However, this is not a one-off instance of a tree toppling over without apparent reason or a strong wind. Concretisation around the base of trees, which weakens the roots and gradually chokes the trunk, is to blame in most cases. With the increasing number of falling trees, it is just a matter of time before human casualties are reported.

Experts say it is time that a tree survey was carried out to identify vulnerable trees. They emphasised that a centralised body with specialist arborists, biologists and ecologists had to be constituted to preserve the city’s trees because there was no accountability due to a multiplicity of agencies.

CR Babu, professor emeritus and head of the Centre for Environment Management of Degraded Ecosystem, said that though the rules stated that concrete within a metre’s radius of trees isn’t allowed, a tree needs a large space. “At least a two-metre radius of a tree should be left free and covered with grass,” Babu said. “We also need a dedicated institute to train people on tree management.”