Pruning for safety

Pruning for safety
Deccan Herald

In a bid to check the threat to life and property from trees rendered weak due to unscientific pruning and restricted growth area, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike has initiated an exercise in canopy management.

Haphazard pruning generally carried out to draw cable, electricity or telephone lines leave well-grown trees in imbalance and the condition worsens when their roots too come under attack during road works, observed a BMP Horticulture superintendent, explaining the need for canopy management and also throwing light on the many trees that are uprooted during every other spell of rain in the city.

Over the last week, the canopy management exercise was carried out on a test basis at Govindarajnagar ward in Vijayanagar. The measure will be extended to the city over after the pooja holidays, he said. “We are carrying out the work during the night. About 20 trees on the road between Govindarajnagar ward office and Raheja Park Apartments were pruned in the test exercise last week” confirmed an officer under BMP’s south division.

Canopy management will also address the issue of trees leaning and drooping into the carriage way and the resultant obstruction to traffic flow or streetlights. “Trees along most roads are planted on the periphery. The fence or wall restricts their growth on one side forcing them to tilt towards carriageways” noted the divisional officer.

Tree census

Meanwhile a tree census is on the cards, now that a Tree Officer has been notified exclusively for the BMP area.

The census is expected to help assess the actual green cover requirement of the City, the stress bearing (pollution bearing) capacity of the present stock, the frequency with which the replacements should be made, the kind of trees that can be grown with least resistance to daily life or traffic etc.

The exercise for which a budgetary allocation of Rs 10 lakh has been made available, is likely to take about a year for completion, according to the BMP’s newly appointed Tree Officer and DCF Krishna Udupudi.

The matter will be soon placed before the standing committee on horticulture, it is yet to be decided whether the BMP will handle the exercise on its own or will delegate it to the Forest Department, he said.

As per the available satellite imagery, Bangalore has a crown cover of 40 per cent and the tree census will tally it at the ground level. The census itself will be a laborious process of measuring the girth, assessing the age and health, making the taxonomical classification, recording the street wise data etc.