Colombo city’s tree limbs and branches have outgrown and are interfering with pedestrians, vehicular traffic and structures in crucial places, making it inconvenient for residents and people navigating the city.
“The rainy season has just begun and some branches are quite dangerous and can fall anytime causing damage to life and property,” a daily commuter to Colombo, Gihan Wijesekera said. “Some branches of trees need to be pruned urgently, as they could injure commuters rushing to get buses, especially, in the evenings when the sky is overcast,” he lamented.
The Sunday Observer spoke to an official of the Land and Environment Unit of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) which is responsible for maintaining the city’s trees and clearing the dead, broken or split limbs.
Outgrown
“The CMC acts immediately, when they receive complaints about such outgrown trees,” Director of the Lands and Environmental Development Unit, Dammika Jayawardena said.
She said, “In the Colombo city we allocate the roundabouts and the centre islands to be maintained by the private sector. For example, the Town Hall roundabout is maintained by Odel Ltd. Companies such as Abans and Glory Swim Shop also maintain some of the areas.”
Jayawardena says, they carried out a cleaning round a few days ago. However, commuters say it has not helped much.
The CMC requests the people to make their complaints directly to CMC about a fallen tree or tree limb, or other street tree concern.
Here are some views of the public:
Buddika Fernando, in Bambalapitiya: “The old trees lining the streets of Colombo city give us shade from the harsh rays of the sun during warm weather, but they are dangerous during heavy rains. The trees can fall over fences and pavements causing harm to commuters.”
Mohammed Ismail, in Maradana: “We have to often play hide and seek to read bus boards as branches of overgrown trees block the view. Sometimes, branches extend towards the bus through the shutters causing injury to passengers.
It seems the trees have not been maintained properly for some time. Meanwhile, the big trees on the roadways block traffic during peak hours.
It is difficult to walk along pavements near the Hilton and Galadari Hotels as tree roots have grown over pavements. Commuters are compelled to walk on the road in such instances. In front of the Regal Cinema, the branches of the new trees are not trimmed regularly. The thorns of the flower shrubs on the pavements too cause injury to commuters.”
Beauty
Sherin Perera in Kollupitiya: “Trees add beauty to the environment, especially, in the Colombo city. We rarely see a tree on the roadside. The green pathway constructed in Korea is a great example to show the importance of trees in a commercialised city. The benefits of wayside tree plantation are it minimizes industrial and vehicular CO2 emissions and create a micro-climatic effect in the city.
“I wish the CMC would introduce a program to plant more trees in the city.
The current maintenance of roadside trees is good and I want to make the city greener. We should think about ways to increase the number of trees rather than cutting them down.
The short trees on the pathways give people shade from the sun and shelter from rain. A good example is the Bougainvillea plants at D.R. Wijewardena Mawatha.”
Ranjith Bandara, a six-footer said, he didn’t need to comb his hair when he stepped out from his house. “The overhanging branches of the Bougainvillea tree near Lake House does it for him while he passed under it”, he quipped.
Pix: Vipula Amarasinghe