SHILLONG: The Revenue & Disaster Management department has asked the Forest department to fell old and vulnerable trees in the city that pose a threat to the lives of people.
Minister in-charge, Kyrmen Shylla, informed that the department has already written to the Forest department to carry out a joint inspection in different areas in and around Shillong and identify such old, nay perilous trees.
“We had written a letter sometime last week to the Forest and Environment department on the need to have a joint inspection in different areas to identified trees which are required to be cut down since they are posing a threat to the people,” he said.
Expressing hope that the Forest department will respond positively to the plea, Shylla said, “We are also seeing that there are many big trees near the roadside which are required to be cut down to avert any kind of mishap. We have already witnessed many trees being recently uprooted and falling on the roadside, like the ones near Raj Bhavan and Rhino Point. Luckily, no one was injured in these two incidents”.
The minister also said that he will personally talk to the Forest and Environment Minister, James PK Sangma, in this regard.
It may be recalled that three people were killed when a eucalyptus tree growing inside the Raj Bhavan compound fell on a taxi outside the campus in August 2017.After the incident, the state government had identified around 500 trees across the city as vulnerable and constituted six committees to carry out survey of different areas in and around the city.
