[arnav17]

A tree weakened by termites just fell down due to heavy winds in Jayanagar, very close to our residence. Immediately rushed to find 3 cars - A fortuner, Baleno and a Comet crushed by the huge tree along with a few two wheelers.

3 people were injured, and I really feel bad for the severely injured guy. He was just passing by on his Rizta when the tree fell on him, breaking his leg and causing various Injuries in the chest area, bleeding severely.

The comet seems to have held up better than expected, but lucky that no one was present inside it. The passengers in the fortuner weren't that lucky, and were injured, but helped out by the crowd.

The luckiest escape of all was for the coconut seller, who had gone home for lunch a just 5 minutes before the tree fell right on his shop, crushing the spot where he would have sat.

Please be careful while parking and passing weaker trees. The authorities definitely need to take measures in planting stronger trees and removing these weaker ones. Just a few months back the adjacent tree had fallen on a rickshaw and killed the driver and its passengers.

This is an appeal to the authorities to take measures in trimming or removing weaker trees. The ones like this as you can see in the picture are literally hollow inside, and susceptible to falling. We all know that trees are essential for life, but weaker ones are actually a danger.

[Chetan_Rao]

Originally Posted by arnav17

...

This is an appeal to the authorities to take measures in trimming or removing weaker trees. The ones like this as you can see in the picture are literally hollow inside, and susceptible to falling. We all know that trees are essential for life, but weaker ones are actually a danger...

Terrible situation; minding your business one second, grievously injured the next.

Given how hard Jayanagar residents had to fight to keep their trees a few years ago when the govt. wanted to drop them all during their road-widening frenzy, I just hope this incident doesn't become an excuse for stripping urban green cover in the name of 'safety'.

What's needed is proper inspections and selective treatment as you say, but our greedy overlords are hard to trust.

[Red Liner]

The trees are falling because they don't have adequate space to spread their roots for surface area strength. Add excessive concretisation and massive ground water depletion, plus very deep foundations to enable basement parking and what not, where do these age old trees go? They were here before this maddening urbanization, and there is no way natural evolution can keep up with human evil-ution.

[somersault]

The trees could have been made weaker intentionally (so as to get rid of from the place for commercial exploitation of roads, housing complexes etc) or non-intentionally (through concreting of the roads). This is a common issue with large trees near roads. The solution to the problem should not be cutting these so called weak trees (some trimming could be allowed) but to give these trees adequate support to stand, add warning banners around the trees for no parking etc. Removing the tree should be the last action.

Banglore was once a city full of lakes and trees. We are already losing the lakes, lets fight for the trees.

[mak.prasada]

I'm curious as to the insurance situation in this case. Will they process it smoothly or create some issue like the vehicles were parked improperly in no-parking areas.. Can anyone shed some light on what to do in such situations?

Yesterday, even I have seen an ecoport crushed when the tree it was parked under fell on it.

[Aditya]

Tree weakened by termites falls due to heavy winds | Three cars crushed - Posts moved to a new thread.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by mak.prasada

I'm curious as to the insurance situation in this case. Will they process it smoothly or create some issue like the vehicles were parked improperly in no-parking areas. Can anyone shed some light on what to do in such situations?

The claim will be covered under accidental external means. The claim process will a regular one and it will be very rare that rejection will be due to parking reasons.

Am I the only one who feels that the tree didn't look like termite infested to come crashing down or anyone else feels so.

[PreludeSH]

Not sure what the forest division of BBMP does. There are many trees which are weak and need trimming across the city. Also, the kind of trees that are being planted are the fast growing ones and they are not that strong.

In Mysuru, one person passed away months ago when a dead tree branch fell on him while minding his own business and travelling on his 2 wheeler. No accountability anywhere is the reason why authorities dont really care.

[krishnakumar]

Termites are attacking the trees because of urbanization. If there is sufficient soil that is mulched with wood chips (like that of a forest floor), the termites have enough food to just survive on that and don’t typically attack the trees. It is also necessary to apply lime wash upto 3-4 ft from the soil level which prevents termites and other pests from attacking the trees (as can be seen in villages and near forests where people actually take care of trees).

If only the authorities realize that it is truly possible to maintain ecosystem while we improve our urban infrastructure, and these are not expensive at all. I am willing to wager a bet that the budget for building a giant Sky Deck is sufficient to solve many of these urban ecosystem problems.

[BlackPearl0_0]

It was very shocking, i use this route everyday. Lots of trees falling, in and around jayanagar. It's a high time that authorities should evaluate trees condition and take necessary action.
Btw I stay in jayanagar 34th cross street and hoping to catch up in person

[ramki.grandhi]

Damn, I feel more sorry for the MG Comet here. By adopting electric, the owner might want to save the planet, but a tree killed the car

Btw, how does insurance work in this case? Given that these might not be designated parking spaces.

[Roy.S]

Can't blame the termites for this one. This tree seems to have been brought down by human infestation.
Unfortunately this sort of thing has become all too common and its obvious that the people in charge of infrastructure care neither about trees nor humans.