Cyclone Phailin hit the city with all might uprooting hundreds of trees and leaving behind a trail of destruction on the ground. However, it left a bigger question about Government’s policy on clearing the city off dead and weak trees that cannot withstand strong winds and are prone to getting uprooted.
According to reports, around 400 trees in Ranchi area were uprooted due to gusty winds in last couple of days which damaged more than 100 electricity poles and disrupted traffic causing inconvenience to the resident in several localities Interestingly, the forest department seems to have no plans to remove such trees and what makes matter worse is that they have no record of trees that are vulnerable to strong winds.
“It is difficult to prepare a list of such trees,” said an Indian Forest Service Officer. The District forest office had given as many as 20 permissions to different agencies including Railways, HEC and housing societies to cut trees that were of potential threat to life and property. “They had sought permission citing isolated cases. They will clear trees falling under their jurisdiction,” said Ranchi DFO R l Bakshi.
However, environmentalists add another dimension to the problem. According to city based Geologists Nitish Priyadarshi, the soil composition does not allow roots to penetrate deeper making trees vulnerable especially to strong winds that accompany a cyclone or storm of higher magnitude. The loose soil gets eroded due to heavy downpour making weak trees more vulnerable, added Priyadarshi.
“Trees that completed their life span and the younger trees that could not penetrate deeper in the ground were the one to get uprooted by the wind,” he said, adding “as many as 50 to 55 trees were uprooted in Doranda, Morhabadi and Bariatu due to cyclonic activity.” Notwithstanding the soil texture, Phailin exposed the State forest department preparedness to minimize the loss due to uprooting of trees. The department ignored the instructions given by the then Speaker of Jharkhand legislative Assembly CP Singh to clear the city of dead and old trees that cannot withstand storms. Singh had held meeting with officials of Road Construction and Forest department.
Singh said, “Yes, I had called a meeting on this. I had instructed them to find number of such trees.” However, the magnitude of devastation due to the cyclone saddened the former speaker as he stands vindicated when trees fell one by one and damaged properties besides dampening the festive mood. “Kaam kahan hota hai!Yehan to officer he rajya chala rahe hain ( Nothing happens here. Bureaucrats are running this State),” maintained Singh.
While Singh has faint memories of the meeting officials of the Road Construction department do not even remember of such an instruction and feigned ignorance about it. “I don’t know anything about this,” replied Engineer-in-chief of Road Construction RN Raman. “Nobody listens to genuine concerns. Files gather dust at Chief Minister’s table,” added Singh.