Agencies rush to clear fallen trees
NEWDELHI: A day after the city witnessed widespread damage due to the dust storm, officials from the civic agencies said on Monday they had intensified their drive to clear fallen trees. Over 250 trees were uprooted or damaged due to strong winds causing massive traffic jams and damage to property across the city.
The East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) said it cleared portions of 97 trees on main arterial roads. “Although most of these trees were located on Public Works Department (PWD) roads, we carried out the drive to ensure public safety. Branches of these trees were damaged and had fallen on roads after the dust storm,” said Narpat Singh, deputy director, EDMC.
The teams from the civic agencies also prepared list of old trees that need to be pruned in a bid to prevent damage in future. “We also spotted old trees, which can fall anytime on these roads and will soon write to the Delhi government’s forest department in order to get permission to prune them,” said Singh.
The New Delhi Municipal Council cleared fallen trees at 30 places. The South Delhi Municipal Corporation has planned to organise a similar drive to iden- GHAZIABAD: A 26-year-old contractual labour died in Ghaziabad on Monday morning while repairing an electricity line. The man had gone for repairs after getting early morning call around 3.40am. The lineman Babu Ram, a resident of Baghpat, was called for repairs the storm caused heavy damages to electricity infrastructure in Ghaziabad, officials said.
tify old trees on Tuesday.
“On residents’ demand we have planned a similar survey. We will try to ensure that trees are not pruned unnecessarily,” said senior official from SDMC’S horticulture department.
Environmentalist Vimlendu Jha, a member of the Ridge Management Board that is responsible for preserving Delhi’s green cover, said civic agencies need to be more careful about pruning trees. “Trees are often looked as obstruction for growth of a city and we should not fall in that trap. Not all trees uprooted on Sunday were old or overgrown,” he said.