As you ride through Borda approaching Margao, every ancestral house with Portuguese architecture has a huge, old tree. These are fully bloomed trees with flowers and immediately memories go back to last June when one such tree filled with mangoes from the Holy Spirit Church compound came crashing down on the road risking lives of motorists and pedestrians. Across Margao Municipality jurisdiction, many such mango, teak, almond trees and other huge trees have not just overgrown but are growing across the road with no authority doing anything about them despite the fact that is any of these trees fall, they will not only take lives but also damage public property.
“We maintained and pruned branches of these trees only where the trees were damaging and risking our electricity wires. Even now we prune trees that may interfere with a street light but now over seven years, all our electricity cables have gone underground across Margao city and hence, we have no responsibility to maintain these trees. Even last monsoon, because of heavy winds, Margao had lots of disruptions because of tree falls but it’s not our lookout unless it threatens an electric poll or wire,” explains Devidasan, Executive Engineer of the Electricity Department overlooking Margao city.
Similarly, Fire Safety Station In charge, Herculean D’Souza explained to us that the fire safety squad only has the mandate to go clear or chain saw an already fallen tree and has no mandate to prune branches, even if the tree is a danger to a house, property or human.
“Firstly we have no mandate to even climb a tree. A fire officer on duty is give a fire retardant jacket and safety boots, so in case he climbs a tree and there is an untoward incident, we cannot justify anything. Also a fire safety attendant is allowed to use a chainsaw only below his arm level and hence cannot climb heights to chainsaw trees – a rule made to ensure safety. The onus is on the municipality or the office of the collector,” asserted Herculean D’Souza.
Herculean explains to us that there are special tree cutters certified by the office of the Collector who have the mandate to cut these trees but they charge a huge fee of Rs 1500 per tree which is unaffordable.
“Tree cutting or pruning needs the forest department nod and obviously the Municipality should coordinate this with them and not my office,” explained Herculean.
Similarly, former Chief Minister and Margao MLA Digambar Kamat asserted, “Obviously we can’t blame the electricity department but the Municipal act clearly calls for the municipality to maintain these trees and cut them. Actually, the PWD should do it in coordination with MMC. After all, they damage the road and the waterfall during monsoons damages the asphalt, creating potholes.”
“Last year because the municipality did nothing, I brought an expert gang from Sanguem to prune and cut these dangerous trees to ensure good sunlight into people’s homes across Aquem and more importantly to prevent any untoward incident in any homes in Margao due to tree fall,” explained a frustrated Kamat.
Former Chairperson, Savio Coutinho explained to us that pruning of branches and cutting dangerous trees is the same clause as bush cutting to be undertaken by the municipality for the safety of people and public property but sadly the municipality is not doing enough.
But Margao Municipality Chairperson Babita Angle and Margao Municipality Chief Officer Siddhivinayak Naik refused to comment and discuss with us on who’s responsible for pruning the branches to make our city safer.
