The tree that was uprooted by a Nor’wester lies suspended over Convent Road. Its branches have smashed into a nearby building. Picture by Sanat Kumar Sinha

A century-old banyan tree yanked off the ground by a Nor’wester has been suspended over busy Convent Road for over a week.

Pedestrians and motorists are scurrying under the giant trunk as branches, some thick enough to be logs, snap and fall on the ground.

The tree broke the boundary wall of the garden in which it grew, crushed a lorry, destroyed three lamp posts and tore a high-voltage power cable, before smashing into an office building on the other side of the road. No one was injured because it was a Sunday evening.

In Lake Town, around the same time, a businessman died after a tree fell on the car he was driving.

Unmindful of the danger, the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) has neither showed the will nor produced the resources to clear Convent Road. Seven evenings after the tree fell, its monstrous carcass stood propped by the severely damaged Arim House.

According to the residents, a mishap is waiting to happen. They show thick branches that fell on the ground, inches away from a passerby or a car.

Mayoral council member (parks and gardens) Faiyaz Ahmed Khan said he did not have information on the matter but would make arrangements to remove the tree as soon as possible. “Trees are supposed to be for the safety and good health of people.”

The residents said CMC men had visited the area a few days back — “after much pleading” — to clear the road. They left after a few hours, saying that they did not have “the skill and tools to chop and remove such a big tree”.

“The civic employees brought ropes and axes, which were useless. The men said it would not be possible to remove the tree without using cranes and woodcutters. Nobody in the area has seen the civic officials since then,” said Inderjeet, the security guard of Arim House.

Had he not moved swiftly from his post on the evening of the storm, Inderjeet could have suffered serious injuries.

“The wind had picked up. I came out of my quarters to remove the chair and table near the front gate, when I heard a loud sound. I looked up and saw the gigantic tree was coming down. Luckily, it got stuck on the façade of the building. I barely had a fraction of a second to run away before branches started raining on where I had stood,” recounted the guard.

Many employees would have died if they were working in the offices of Arim House that evening, he added.

The impact of the fall can still be felt. Residents of the area are going without electricity as the snapped power line could not be repaired.