BMC starts another round of health audit of tall trees in Salt Lake
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Kolkata: The Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation (BMC) has started another round of health survey of tall trees across Salt Lake.
"Local councillors have been asked to identify and give a list of tall trees that are in bad shape, after which corrective measures will be taken.
Trees with large canopies are pruned periodically from the top to reduce their weight, while fully dead or damaged trees are felled with the forest department's permission," said BMC MMiC (environment) Rahima Bibi Mondal.
Horticulture experts pointed out that the nature of the soil in Salt Lake was such that large trees with deep roots should not be planted along roads, where the roots could not penetrate too deep into the earth.
"Small or medium-sized palm trees should be considered for Salt Lake," said an expert.
Previously, over 50 trees, which were found fully damaged, dead or dangerously leaning towards the road, were cut down, and many were pruned to reduce the weight of their canopy to avoid any mishap.
The exercise is being taken up periodically after a number of tall trees in Salt Lake uprooted over the past few years. Two years ago, a 40-year-old died a few days after a part of a tree fell on him at Salt Lake's Purbachal housing.
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This year, BMC has doubled the budgetary allocations for environment than that last year, from Rs 7 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, and also increased allocations for better maintenance of parks and gardens and maintenance of trees from Rs 70 lakh last year to Rs 1.2 crore this year.
Following a tree health audit that was first carried out in 2022, about 100 tall trees across Salt Lake were found to be in bad shape, with many dangerously leaning on one side. Officials said that they aimed to take up avenue plantation by planting only small and medium-sized trees, which were suitable for the nature of the township's soil.
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