Tree-topple fear in New Alipore after roots dug up in pipe work
Times of India | 15 January 2026
Kolkata: Residents of New Alipore stepped out of their homes on Wednesday and stopped workers engaged by the Kolkata Municipal Corporation water supply department from digging a narrow pavement strip between F and G blocks after they found the workers bored tunnels through the roots of jarul and gulmohar trees.
"Roots of at least four big trees in our neighbourhood were hollowed out by the senseless digging underneath. Though the trees are standing now, they will topple when there is a storm," said F Block resident Amitabh Tibrewal, who lives right next to the dug-up stretch and was livid to find the tunnels that were dug through the roots of trees. Tibrewal asked the workers to be careful when the digging started two days ago, but the warning was ignored. "They argued that since the trees were still erect, it was not a problem to drill under them," said Tibrewal, who saw the trees since the time he moved into the neighbourhood in 1991.
Jnan Goswami Sarani, where the digging is taking place, turned into a thoroughfare leading to a Bailey bridge that was set up when the Majerhat bridge crashed. On Wednesday, he, along with a few other residents, protested and stopped the work around 9.30 am.
Local Meenakshi Pandeya said the workers were asked to furnish documents showing they could burrow under the trees, but they could not. "The pipe-laying work could have been done at the edge of the road instead of the pavement where the trees are growing. The manner in which the digging took place under the trees is shocking," said Pandeya.
After the KMC parks department officials took up the matter with the civic body water supply department officials, a team of civic officials from borough X went to the spot on Wednesday evening to save the trees. "It is unfortunate that some workers acted mindlessly without taking care of the roots of the full-grown trees, making them vulnerable during a storm. We asked our team to take corrective measures so that we don't lose these green giants," said a KMC water supply department official.
While the jarul tree, also known as Pride of India, has purple flowers, the gulmohar tree has red ones. Together, they add a dash of colour to the neighbourhood. Various environment action groups in the city have also been citing indiscriminate digging around trees, lopsided pruning and concretization at the base of the trunk as reasons for the largescale toppling of trees during storms. On Sarat Bose Road, a huge banyan tree had got uprooted last year, holding up traffic on the key road for hours after a similar civic water work had led to the roots being cut.
Recently, trees were felled to carry out beautification in a park situated opposite a police station. Again, it was protests by citizens that forced the KMC parks and squares department to ask the agency that had been handed the park to carry out its maintenance to plant at least 40 trees.