Residents in Salt Lake will have to remove on their own trees fallen on their houses and driveways when Cyclone Amphan struck if the trees had been planted by them on nearby pavements and traffic dividers, civic officials have said.
Krishna Chakraborty, mayor of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation, said the civic body had limited resources and it was concentrating on removing the uprooted trees from the roads, boulevards and parks first.
“We are not supposed to cut or remove trees that have fallen on buildings as the onus is on the owners to remove them. This is why our teams are asking people who had planted the tree even if it is on a pavement or a divider in front of the house. The cyclone has left a trail of destruction that nobody could have imagined and we are focusing on clearing out the roads and other public places, including parks, first. It will take our teams at least a few months to set things right,” Chakraborty said.
Snigdha Mitra, 61, who stays alone in a two-storey house at AE block, said a tree had been leaning on her home but civic workers did not remove it in spite of her requests.
Green Drive: A banyan tree was replanted with the help of a crane at South City on Sunday. A private agency has been hired to replant two big and close to 60 small trees that had been uprooted by Cyclone Amphan on May 20, an official of the residents’ association said.
Mitra’s daughter Saimantika Munshi said she was worried that the tree might come crashing down anytime.
The mother and daughter requested another team that visited the block on Saturday to remove another uprooted tree. But the team apparently said the tree was “too big” for it to handle.
Trees have either fallen on buildings or are leaning on them in several blocks, including AE, EE, AD, AC, BC and DL.
Several residents said the civic body could have done more. Debarjun Saha, who stays in a two-storey house in BC block with his family, said he was scared for his children’s safety as a Krishnachura tree was hanging dangerously over their balcony from a median divider.
“The branches of the tree have landed on the balcony and the top end of the trunk is a few feet away. It can come crashing down any minute now,” Saha said.
Both Saha and Munshi had tried to coax labourers and local gardeners to chop the branches but they too backed out, given the size of the trees.