Cyclone Nilam: Wet, windy spell takes a toll on Bangalore's tree cover

The garden city will now be sporting lesser number of trees as the rains and heavy winds due to Cyclone Nilam, that hit Chennai coast, have felled 86 trees across the city in the past two days. On Thursday itself 74 trees got uprooted due to the rainy spell.

Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) commissioner Rajneesh Goel said here on Thursday that so far 86 trees got uprooted due to rains, out of which 67 have been cleared and the remaining 19 trees will be cleared soon by the BBMP's forest department.

Goel said that trees got uprooted at Rajajinagar 6th block, New BEL road, Nandini Layout, Sheshadipuram, Nayandalli, BDA complex, Malleshwaram 9th main, Marappanahalli, Devarajeevanahalli, Indiranagar, CMH Road, Sultan Palya 4th cross, Jeevanbhima nagar, JP Nagar, Jayanagar 9th block, HSR Layout, Jayanagar 5th block, Basavanagudi and other places.
According to a BBMP official about nine trees fell at  Koramangala alone and seven at Jayanagar. But there were no reports of people getting hurt, he added.

A huge tree fell and damaged the compound wall of the city police commissioner's residence. In Basava Road at Shantinagar, a tree fell on power lines and damaged 6 electric poles. Luckily there were no reports of any injury or loss of life as BESCOM had immediately disconnected power.

BBMP also said that flooding had taken place at Lalbagh Road 4th Cross, and Dinnur. Water had entered into some houses in these areas and BBMP later cleared them.

As for clearing garbage, Goel said that 100% attendance of pourakarmikas was reported at the east and west zones and 95% in the south zone. Over 3,000 tons of garbage was lifted using around 285 trucks. Goel said that due to the wet weather, they were facing difficulty in dumping the garbage at the landfill. Once the rains recede, it will be easier to dispose them, he added.

87.5 mm rain in one day
According to the Bangalore Meteorological Centre, Wednesday recorded almost 81.5mm rainfall through the day. “In one day it rained over 8cms of rain and HAL airport recorded 77.2mm rainfall. The highest wind speed recorded was 47 kmph, at around 9pm,” said a Met official.

While it rained almost continuously on Thursday, the city saw  significantly lesser amount of rainfall. “The city recorded 7.9mm rainfall and HAL recorded 4.0mm on Thursday. Wednedsay’s rains were due to the cyclone, whereas today it was because the cyclone had turned into a depression. Overall in the last two days the city has recorded close to 90mm of rainfall,” the official added.

The wet spell also witnessed a fall in mercury. The maximum temperature recorded on Thursday was 20 degrees Celsius, whereas the minimum was 18 degrees.

“The next 48 hours will see intermittent rains with a chance of moderate to heavy rainfall,” the Met official said. So, it is too early to stash away your umbrellas and raincoats.