Residents hang on to dear life as giant tree leans onto apartment in Jeppu

Mangalore, July 15: Residents of an apartment and surrounding villas near Nandigudda in Jeppu had to spend the whole night in anxiety and fear as a giant banyan tree leaned onto the building in a potentially dangerous manner following heavy rains on Thursday.

The 150-year-old banyan tree, which had partially got uprooted just a couple of weeks back, could not withstand the accompanied with gusty winds and leaned precariously on to the four-storeyed Opera Plaza near Vishal Garage at around 10.30pm.

Anxious residents came out of their houses to witness the shocking scene and vented ire against the Mangalore City Corporation authorities for having left the work incomplete following the earlier fall on June 28.

The MCC operation earlier had left the giant branches of the tree standing on inadequate root and efforts by the local people to convince the authorities about the potent danger had yielded little result.

T.K. Sudheer, a resident of the area and the Congress leader pointed out that the issue was brought to the notice of the commissioner Vijaya Prakash recently. He promised to examine the issue and take necessary action. “But nothing has happened afterwards,” he rued.

With the tree leaning dangerously onto the building, people started calling up MCC officials and the fire service, which arrived at the scene within minutes but could hardly do anything but watch the tree in amusement.

The MCC assistant executive engineer Ganesh also visited the spot and had to face the wrath of the local residents, who blamed the callousness of the MCC for the present situation.

“This is probably the tallest tree in the city. This was a disaster waiting to happen,” said Bhaskar Rao, former corporator, who runs a shop just below the falling tree.

Even as the anxious residents watched helplessly, the fire service personnel with their vehicle disappeared from the scene and the “frantic search” by the assistant executive engineer hardly yielded any result.

“We went around looking for people to get the work done. But, unfortunately we could not find them. We are at it. We are also equally worried,” said the official on his third visit to the spot.

When asked him why the MCC authorities left the work incomplete, he said, the branches were cut adequately and “as per the instructions of the local people”.

But Sudheer pointed out that the MCC does not have necessary infrastructure to deal with the crisis of this nature. “They just don't have enough manpower. There is also dearth ofequipment” he said.