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Two bike-borne persons lost their lives after a tree fell on them as they proceeded from Bhosari to Nashik Phata on Pune-Nashik highway on Saturday morning. Though it was a tragic incident, it highlighted a peculiar phenomenon of a fully grown tree falling, which usually happens during heavy rains. The reasons city environmentalists gave for the fall of the tree puts the civic administration in the dock. Frequent digging of roads, putting paver blocks, tar or concrete in the area surrounding the tree and improper cutting of trees, which causes losing of their balance, etc, in their opinion, lead to falling of big trees in the twin towns.

A big traffic snarl ensued after the incident. Fire brigade personnel cleared the highway for traffic after removing the tree branches.

The deceased Samadhan Nathu Patil (36), a resident of Rajgurunagar, and Nilesh Rajesh Shingale (37) from Amravati were wearing helmets and riding on a motorcycle (MH14 EZ5035). However, their headgears could not save them as the impact of branches took their lives. This incident took place at around 7 am on Saturday in front of the Bhosari police station.

Fire brigade personnel Sanjesh Thakur, Vitthal Ghuse, Laxman Howale, Nikhil Gogawle, Vikas Naik, Ashok, Amol Chiplunkar, drivers Kokre, Jadhav and Mandhan cut the fallen tree branches and opened the road for traffic. There is a canopy of Gulmohar trees on this stretch of Pune-Nashik highway.

Kiran Gawade, chief fire officer, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC), said, “A nurse from the Yashwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH), Rupali Ubale, was passing by when the incident happened. Srikanth Vairagar and Rupali Ubale called up at 7.09 am to inform that a tree had fallen on persons riding a two-wheeler near Bhosari police station. Vehicles from the main fire brigade and the deputy fire brigade from Bhosari were immediately dispatched to the spot.”

Gawade said Ubale could not administer first aid to the victims as Shingale died on the spot. She arranged the ambulance and rushed Patil to the YCMH, where he died while receiving treatment.

Gawade added, “It was a very pitiful incident. Normally, tree fall is reported during heavy rain but in such cases rainwater, even in a constant light drizzle, gets absorbed into trunks of trees as they are either infested with termites or due to some other reasons.”

Tree lovers of ‘Nisargraja Maitra Jeevanche’ (NMJ), a city-based NGO, surveyed tree falling cases in Pimpri-Chinchwad two years ago. That time, 350 tree falling incidents were reported in the twin towns.

Sagar Wagh, vice-president, NMJ, told Mirror, “Our study revealed that the main reason of the tree falling was the foreign species of trees, which could not survive in climatic and geographical conditions here.”

Gulmohar is not a native species. The civic body planted these trees on the roadsides when the trees grew up to 8-10 ft high. These trees grew tall within a couple of years but they could not survive for long as their roots did not go deep into the earth. Moreover, the roadsides are covered with paver blocks and tree routes do not get a chance to spread around. Their roots get cut while digging roads for various purposes such as laying pipelines, cables, drainage lines, etc. Trees cannot survive due to growing urbanisation.”

The NMJ findings also revealed that the civic body trims roadside tree branches improperly. Only one side is cut mostly. Thus, trees lose balance and crash in heavy rains or storms.