During monsoon preparedness, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sent notices to 9,000 housing societies in the city to trim or cut dangerous trees on their premises. Accordingly, 8,300 societies trimmed the trees by July 13, while 700 societies still have dangerous trees that need to be trimmed.
Environmentalist activists argue that the manner of tree trimming is weakening their roots. Meanwhile, 356 trees and 514 branches have fallen across the city in the last 43 days.
Before the onset of the monsoon, BMC surveys the dangerous trees across the city and gets them trimmed. While the responsibility for the trees on the private premises is on the property owner - after inspection, the civic body issues a notice to the landowner or housing societies asking them to trim or cut off any tree or branch that poses a danger to people.
There are 15.5 lakh trees on private premises across the city. Out of the 9,000 sent notices, the civic team trimmed around 1,50,000 trees on the roads and removed 523 dead/dangerous trees before the onset of the monsoon, said the civic official.
"Instead of putting the responsibility on the housing societies, the BMC officials must visit the housing societies and guide them about trimming branches. Also, they should charge nominal fees since the private contractors charge around Rs 40,000,” said activist D. Stalin
Environmental activist Zoru Bhathena said, "Treefall is natural during monsoon, but the reason why trees weaken after trimming must be found. There should be a scientific guideline for pruning. The trees here are trimmed from the bottom and not on top. The trees in the city are tall while they should be shorter with a good round canopy cover."
"We have conducted a workshop for all our staff by noted arborists for scientific tree trimming. 700 societies have started the process of trimming trees on their premises. We have appealed to citizens not to stand under the tree during heavy rainfall to avoid accidents," said the garden Superintendent Jitendra Pardeshi.
