With the onset of the monsoon rains and strong winds, urban centres in Sri Lanka are once again seeing multiple incidents of roadside trees being uprooted, at times collapsing on unsuspecting motorists and pedestrians. It is reported that thus far this year (2024), seven lives have been claimed by falling trees due to adverse weather conditions. Just last week alone, nearly 60 trees collapsed due to the adverse weather in and around Colombo, reports indicated. Some officials linked to the local government have stated that there are around 170-200 trees which are between 60 to 150 years old, that are at risk of collapsing. As such, the risk will likely persist in the coming weeks and months.
However, The Daily Morning and The Sunday Morning have reported on the lacklustre nature of the authorities responsible for the surveillance and maintenance of such street-side trees in Colombo last year. In 2023, with a number of trees falling on vehicles and crowded roads during the monsoon period, the public outcry spurred the slow-moving Colombo Municipal Council (CMC) to hit the streets and carry out their duties. Many irregularities and lapses in the way the responsibility was handled, was reported by the media, with the authorities, both from the government and city councils stressing that lessons were lent.
The recent deaths of motorist and pedestrians indicate that lessons indeed were not learnt. Sri Lanka’s urban centres are relearning painful lessons. Many of the instances where trees were uprooted could have been avoided if the proper testing and surveillance-maintenance regime was carried out.
Yesterday (27), State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon announced that a special programme will be implemented to cut down and remove the trees at risk of collapsing within the jurisdiction of the Colombo Municipal Council (CMC). He also mentioned that the Army and Civil Defence Force (CDF) personnel are expected to be deployed for the process of removing such high-risk trees, adding that the relevant actions will be conducted under the full supervision of the CMC and that it has also been decided to plant new trees as a replacement for the trees that are being removed.
Last August, following the death of five commuters when a large tree collapsed onto a Deniyaya-bound bus, which had departed from Pettah, near the Liberty Roundabout in Colpetty, it was learnt that specialist equipment imported to help test the health of ageing trees was laying unused in a run-down state. It was also revealed that the CMC lacked personnel with the right expertise to conduct routine testing of such trees which are in public spaces and as such pose a risk to motorists and pedestrians. The Sunday Morning learnt that an internal audit was being carried out to determine what happened to the imported tree scanner, which was supposed to be used to detect trees at risk of collapsing, after the incident and in the wake of a public outcry. “An audit investigation is ongoing to find out what happened to the tree scanner, which is allegedly in a dilapidated state,” CMC Acting Deputy Director (Industries) A.D.S. Rohana told The Sunday Morning. The tree scanner, which had been imported to monitor tree health, had not been used due to a lack of expertise, the senior CMC official told The Sunday Morning, stating that “An arborist is needed to operate the sophisticated tree scanner. I’m not sure of the cost of the scanner,”
At the time, CMC officials told The Daily Morning that the tree scanner was purchased at a cost of around Rs. 40 million.
At the time, CMC officials said that the probes that were launched following the said accident have led to the identification of 558 trees within the vicinity of the CMC as ‘dangerous’ including those that are more than 100 years old. However, according to the officials, only 214 of them need to be removed, while the remaining 344 trees only need to be trimmed. The task was to be done as a collaborative operation that received the support of multiple parties including the subject Ministry, the Wildlife Department, the CMC, the Urban Development Authority, plant experts and the State Timber Corporation, in addition to a committee appointed by the CMC.
Today, with nearly seven more lives lost, 60 trees collapsed, and around another 200 suspected to be at the risk of collapsing, one has to ask the CMC and all the state agencies who joined in to help them last year, if the job was done properly? Also, did the CMC persist in the routine surveillance of such trees that they had mapped out? Did the trees with lesser risk that needed to be trimmed, get the attention they needed?
In Sri Lanka, the Government and the state institutions will rush to carry out knee-jerk responses, and offer condolences, and reparations for those who are killed and get hurt due to state action, inaction or negligence. But when will we see accountability? Will those entrusted with the responsibility at the CMC and other state agencies be held responsible for such negligence? Let’s not hold our breath.