Tree-lamp post fall claims senior citizen in Behala

Time of India

02-05-2025

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Kolkata: A 60-year-old lost her life on her way back from a local shop in Behala after a termite-infested Gulmohar (Krishnachura) tree collapsed on her during the
nor'wester
on Thursday evening. A lamp post also collapsed on impact. Another 32-year-old man, who tried to join the restoration work, was electrocuted a few minutes later. This victim, however, is stated to be stable.
As many as 40 full-grown trees and branches of another 27 trees were uprooted and felled due to the squall on Thursday evening. According to a KMC parks dept official, the incidents were reported from Kankurgachhi, Beliaghata, Park Circus, Ballygunge, Rashbehari Avenue, Southern Avenue, Tollygunge, Behala and some areas off Bypass. According to a KMC buildings dept official, they had to respond to an SOS and cut down a large tree that had fallen on a boundary wall in a Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road neighbourhood.
KMC also deployed borough-wise manpower for cutting and removing large trees uprooted.
The Behala incident was reported around 7.20 pm from Unique Park. A section of locals wanted the tree to be cut down, while another section opposed it. "The tree in front of 57B Unique Park fell on a local, Meena Ghosh, a resident of P-55 Unique Park. She was taken to Vidyasagar State General Hospital, where she was declared dead on arrival. The OC and other officers of Parnasree PS, the DMG group of Kolkata Police, KMC workers, fire brigade, and CESC staff rushed to the place and rendered their services to remove the fallen structures," said DC (Behala-SWD) Rahul De.
Her daughter, Soumita, a final-year student, said her mother had convinced her father and aunt (who stays with them) and stepped out to buy some evening snacks despite the weather. "She was returning from a local shop when the storm picked up. The shopkeeper requested my mother to wait, but she insisted that she would rush back. She was barely less than 50 metres from home when the tree fell along with the post. Though police claimed she came under the
Gulmohar tree
, when we saw her lying on the road, we felt that she was electrocuted by the live wires," she said. Her father, Subir Ghosh, a trader, said: "I never imagined we will lose her this way."
"Sundar Halder, 32, a resident of 35/1, Unique Park, was also electrocuted due to fallen wires of the pole that got entangled with the uprooted tree. He was provided medical care by fire brigade officials and Kolkata Police and taken to Vidyasagar State General Hospital. As of now, he is stable," said DC De. Locals said Sundar, a driver, had gone to help the DMG and fire brigade in the rescue operation.
Soumita said the tree had barely survived Amphan. "It was hollow from inside, eaten by termites. A few of us signed a petition and submitted it to KMC borough office and councillor of ward 130 asking it be chopped. Some here, though, objected to it even after a team led by the councillor inspected it. A few of us were being named in a cop complaint," said Ganesh Halder, a local. KMC said an audit of trees in the area will be done.
"We had deployed multiple teams to clear roads across city of the logs. By late Friday morning, we could clear all major roads," said a KMC official.