It was a providential escape. Five minutes after I and my wife drove out from our house at Chittaranjan Park in the evening last Saturday, a big section of a Gulmohar tree crashed in front of our gate.

While leaving, I had stepped out of the car to lock the gate, waved at a neighbour unhurriedly and then slid into the driver’s seat before checking the google map for directions to a shop.

All this while, the tension in the branches above, accumulated over the past two years without any pruning or trimming taking place, was building up. I am not superstitious but can be persuaded to believe that our love for that tree – its dense foliage protecting us from the scorching sun – the colourful birds that inhabited it, and the bright red and orange flowers and wide umbrella-like canopy had something to do with our narrow escape. Nature intervened.

This is not my first tryst with the ubiquitous danger posed by trees that grow in urban spaces without being pruned periodically. A few years back, a very heavy branch of an Amaltas tree that now hugs our balcony suddenly broke and fell, missing me narrowly.

Then, there was that horrific incident which still sends shivers down my spine. I was driving down Josip Broz Tito Marg, near Defence Colony, in November 2023 when a tree came crashing down, missing my car by a few seconds but crushing an autorickshaw right behind me.

My colony poses the greatest danger. The original inhabitants of Chittaranjan Park planted trees in abundance which has made the area one of the greenest in south Delhi. These trees have now reached their full height and their crowns need to be trimmed and branches pruned regularly.

Our favourite Gulmohar had grown progressively top-heavy and we have been raising this issue regularly with the RWA. They did the needful, complaining on MCD’s tree portal about such trees in the area but nothing has happened for about two years. Apparently, only 5% of the complaints have been resolved. Green activism, court orders and an acute staff shortage have led to a situation of administrative paralysis. Officials find not doing anything best for their survival.

Meanwhile, trees keep on toppling over and even killing people. Last year in August, barely a kilometre from our house, a 50-year-old man was killed in Kalkaji when a tree fell on him and his daughter when they were passing through on a scooter during rain. The young girl suffered serious injuries.

In May 2023, just 50 metres from our house, seconds after a woman stepped out of her car and entered her house, a tree collapsed, shattering her car’s windscreen and wrecking the bonnet. This has become quite a common occurrence in this colony and elsewhere and fortuitously deaths have been few.

On July 14, 2022, two men had to be pulled out of a car near a pedestrian overbridge, close to Pamposh Enclave, on Outer Ring Road when a huge tree came crashing down on their car. A biker escaped with his life though his bike was badly mangled.

The rains will be here in June-July, and we know the havoc it wreaks on the tree cover in the city. Not all trees fall because of lack of pruning but that has surely become a very important factor.

The common man is helpless with green activists and courts just throwing the rule book at them. Yes, trees can be chopped on various pretexts and civic agencies do often choke the trees at the base, but what has that got to do with regular pruning!

Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994, doesn’t allow trees to be cut, removed or substantially altered without permission from a tree officer. However, the law also says that owner of a property can take action and inform the tree officer within 24 hours if a tree poses a danger to life or property or obstructs traffic. That’s a difficult call to take without the fear of facing action.

Pruning guidelines issued in 2019 had allowed regular pruning of branches up to a girth of 15.7cm without prior permission from a tree officer. In June 2023, Delhi High Court struck down the guidelines. Civic officials became apprehensive of personal liability or, worse, contempt. Even as activists began demanding intensive scrutiny, geotagging and documentation among other things, the officials just froze.

Delhi govt tried to offer some relief by coming up with a new SOP last year permitting general tending and light pruning of branches less than 15.7 cm in girth, but the high court has stayed it this month, saying removal of the mandatory approval of a tree officer was contrary to a judgement of the high court delivered on May 29, 2023.

So, who takes the responsibility for protecting human lives in the city? I can only hear the echo of my own voice.

Meanwhile, that beautiful Gulmohar tree in front of our house is now tilting to the other side and bending under its own weight. It hangs dangerously over our neighbour’s house. Will it survive the next storm? Will it end up damaging the house or worse? There are no clear answers because I wonder if anyone is listening. And that’s true about the rest of the city too.

So, for now, keep looking up while walking even if you stumble and fall. That’s better than being caught off-guard by a tree that’s finally giving up. While driving, stick to the middle lane, particularly during a thunderstorm. During heavy rain and windy conditions, park your car. And pray.

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