Trees falling in monsoon

[mani nair]

Dear friends,

There was a news day before yesterday that in Mumbai one young lady and her daughter died due to the falling of a tree on them.  Very sad news. Because of no falt of theirs they have to suffer. Our Municipality and the theatre owners are passing the buck.  Last year also so many trees fell during the monsoon in Mumbai and that too big strong trees are falling.  What could be the reason other than strong wind for the falling of trees ? and what we can do from our end to protect them ?  Please help.

Regards,

Mani Nair

[Smilax004]

Dear Maniji,

I am very sorry to hear the sad incidence. This tree fall is happening
in most of the cities. We use to see the same in Bangalore as well.
What I think is that most of the trees are standing solitary and they
are not getting support from others (when we become old we need to get
a hand of support know!). How plant overcome (especially trees with
softwood) this situation. In the forest trees are interlinked by the
canopy and they support each other from falling due to high wind.
Here, solitary trees that are standing alone (most of the avenue trees
are softwood in nature) are prone to fell apart due to hurricane.
Further soil erosion due to irresponsible management.
What I saw in China was that they make protective shield around the
base of each (avenue)trees with hard stones (concreted shields were
also there) around the trees to protect the soil near the tree base.
We have nothing, authorities are waiting for trees to fell down (they
dont bothered about any damage happened or not) so that there would
not be any agitation from environmentalists/ tree lovers who want to
protect the trees. If the authority want to cut a tree they know that
they need to face environmentalists/ tree lovers.
I think protection (of soil and interlinking by planting trees closer
once the first planted trees reached a certain height) has to be taken
care when there is a tree planted along road side. There is no proper
management for trees along road side in our cities (I wonder only in
cities?).

Regards
Giby

[formp...@yahoo.com]

Dear Maniji
According to the requirement of plantation we need to have the pit dug minimum 3 feet deep and 2 to 3 feet wide and long. We have to plant the sapling of atleast one to two year old. As you can see most of rhe time the plantation on road side is done by Municipal corporetions of those areas. They give contract, then like typical----- the person dig only one foot pit. Even not broad. Many a times it is on lower tat/concrete. The rooting area remains out of the pit. The lower tar prevents penetration of roots.
Then the caporation thinks of either digging, repairing, pavemaking etc etc. Where the tree gets futher uprooted, damaged and then can't withstad the wind.
When we do plantation on our plantation site you should see the wind vilocity there,its all open barren land but no single plant gets uprooted this and fall down.
If you are interested I will forward the Hariyali mail to the group. You can join first time to the group or can go on your own to explore the flora you will love the site. It is similar to Kas.
Madhuri

Sent from BlackBerry® on Airtel

---

From: mani nair <mani....@gmail.com>

Sender: indian...@googlegroups.com

Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 09:48:01 +0530

To: <indian...@googlegroups.com>

Subject: [efloraofindia:74552] Trees falling in monsoon

[Yazdy Palia]

Dear Mani ji,
I have a simple theory, whatever we could manage by ourselves, we must
do. What is not in our hands, we have to accept it. If we worry over
things that we can not help in anyway, we will be only harming
ourselves. I think this is one of those situations. My apologies, this
is not technical. However everything that is public, normally ends
this way. The story of the two ladies who got trapped under a falling
tree is an accident. It reminds me of an incident years ago. An
elderly Homeopathic doctor in Mysore was walking to his clinic when a
tree fell down a few hundred meters away and the power lines were
brought down over a long stretch one of the killed him. These old
trees may be hollow.
Regards
Yazdy.

[mani nair]

Thanks Satyendra ji, Giby ji, Madhuri ji and Yazdy ji for your reply.  Yes you are right Yazdy ji, we have to accept what is not in our hands. I think if we had done the things correctly and on time and the accident happened, we have a satisfaction that we have done our bit and  therefore it was not due to our fault, but here the authorities are simply passing the bucks.   I think the main problem is due to the digging by Telephone and Gas authorities.  They cut the roots and do not bother to cover the digged portion with mud thus exposing the roots to the elements.   The second reason could be more exotic trees like Gulmohar are planted whose roots do not go very deep.  Yes Yazdy ji, in our Society's compound trees I do whatever I can do myself like putting soil around the trees and trimming the old branches etc. but that is very little.

Mr. Gibby's reason also is true as in forests trees are interlinked  thus helping each other and the roots also go very deep.  Also there should be proper pruning done at the right time i..e. before monsoon starts, but here everything starts after the accident !!.  Even they do the pruning they cut half of the tree and very difficult for the tree to survive.

Madhuri ji, I received your mail and I am planning to attend the camp.  

Regards,

Mani.

[H S]

Now BMC are planning to set a committee on this!!! Now committee member will go around the city and decide what to cut (pruning) and what to not cut... 

I feel, this all should have done before monsoon.

Hope they dont repeat the same mistake next year!!

regards,

--

 - H.S.

A scientific man ought to have no wishes, no affections, - a mere heart of stone