Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore   

Enumeration of wind-fallen trees

V.S. Palaniappan

Forest dept. plans to perambulate reserve forest areas

Coimbatore: The Forest Department officials are planningto perambulate the reserve forest areas to enumerate the number of trees that had fallen due to gusty winds during the recent rain.

The setting in of the South West monsoon brought heavy rain in the Western Ghats and thegusty winds led to uprooting of trees at a number of places. More trees might have got uprooted at the Siruvani hills, coming under the Pooluvampatti Range in Coimbatore Division, as it had witnessed heavy rain and gusty winds.

As a result, the Tamil Nadu Water Supply and Drainage Board (TWAD) and the Corporation officials could not visit the Siruvani dam when it started surplussing recently. The Corporation, TWAD and Forest officials laboured for nearly two-days to remove these wind-fallen trees and boulders to clear the route that leads to the dam site.

The District Forest Officer, Seva Singh, told The Hindu that there were reports of trees getting uprooted in the Pooluvampatti Range.

The trees that got uprooted inside the jungles are to be enumerated.

After the weather conditions eased, the forest staff and tribal watchers would begin enumerate the number of trees uprooted. There were instances of one uprooting tree bringing down another weak tree.Going by information reaching from tribal areas, TWAD and Corporation staff, even by conservative estimates, a total of 20 to 30 trees should have fallen in areas that are easily accessible. In Vellapathy and Siruvani hills of Pooluvampatti range two big trees belonging to Anacacia Latifolia (five years old) and Acacia Ferrugia (10 years old) have fallen along the roadside. Smaller trees that fell inside the jungles would not be removed. After taking measurements and inspection by higher officials, huge trees that fell closer to the roads would be removed, officials said.

Price would be fixed for these trees based on the prevailing market rate and would be sent to the timber depot of the Forest Department. Mr. Seva Singh said that the department would take up gap planting in due course under any of the ongoing afforestation projects.He also expressed the hope that new trees would come up by natural process of seed germination since the sky has opened up in this pockets due to foliage getting removed by wind fallen trees.

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