Tamil Nadu floods: Rain uproots 800 trees

Over 800 trees, and still counting, have been uprooted so far with the local body bracing for more uprooting as rain increased on Monday.

During the last council meet, Mayor Saidai S. Duraisamy had said the city had less than six per cent of tree cover remaining, against the recommended 33 per cent.

The monsoon induced tree casualty is likely to have done more damage. Experts said unscrupulous and uncoordinated underground work by different service agencies was contributing to the short life of trees.

“We have metro water, TNEB, corporation and others who lay cables, drains and pipes with no coordination between them. When laying they remove some portion of the trees’ roots. Such unplanned activities weaken the trees and a small amount of rainfall causes the tree to fall,” said K.K. Suresh, Dean (i/c), Forest College and Research Institute,

Mettupalayam.

Not only trees, the corporation’s parks have also suffered losses. For instance, parks on the Cooum and Adyar river banks like the one on Langs Garden Road and Kotturpuram Tree Park, have lost a few trees and other greenery. “We will have to take note of the losses suffered and subsequent action will follow,” said a senior official.

Officials attributed manpower shortage in the parks department as one of the reasons why the local body could do only very little about protecting trees.

“The whole set up of the department has to be re-engineered. There are a very few ground staff available,” the official said.

A MoU is in place with the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University to help with the reformation process. But it is yet to be processed, officials added.