Doon residents demand urgent tree health survey after three die by tree collapse
Dehradun: At least three people lost their lives in the state capital this pre-monsoon season due to incidents of trees collapsing, despite environmental activists urging authorities for nearly a decade to conduct a comprehensive survey and health assessment of Dehradun's trees.
"Last year, we learned that the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation had engaged the Forest Research Institute (FRI) in 2013 to conduct a tree census and health survey within their municipality limits. In June, we met the then municipal commissioner in Dehradun and proposed a similar initiative here," said Sanjeev Srivastava, eco-activist and member of Dehradun-based environmental organisation Citizens for Green Doon.
Following appeals from environmentalists, the Dehradun Municipal Corporation (DMC) wrote to FRI in Aug last year, seeking a survey like Chandigarh's. Documents accessed by TOI, reveal that Chandigarh municipality had allocated Rs 44 lakh for their tree health survey.
"FRI asked the corporation to provide details of areas requiring the survey so they could prepare a cost estimate. However, there's been no progress in the past year, and the project was never handed over to new officers.
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The callousness on the part of civic agencies is baffling. They don't act on time, and when unfortunate accidents happen, authorities often use it as an excuse to fell trees indiscriminately. Had a scientific health check been conducted, these incidents might have been prevented.
We have FRI's services available right here in the city, yet it's not being utilised," said Srivastava.
Environmentalists have renewed calls for a scientific tree health assessment. They also blame the concretisation around tree bases for weakening their stability. Meanwhile, DMC officials said they have written to the Chandigarh corporation to understand the details of their agreement with FRI.
"We are also in talks with FRI to conduct this exercise pro bono, and we have a meeting scheduled with them in the first week of July," said municipal commissioner Namami Bansal.
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