Volunteers replant uprooted trees at Rabindra Sarobar
Times of India | 21 June 2026
Kolkata: Payloaders and cranes rolled into Rabindra Sarobar on Saturday morning, not to demolish illegal structures or remove encroachments, but to replant four large trees that had toppled during a thunderstorm about three weeks ago.
The 88 kmph squall on May 29, which lasted nearly an hour, uprooted more than 65 trees and damaged over 50 others across Kolkata. Among them were four trees at Rabindra Sarobar — a cotton tree, also known as Simul; a Radhachura tree; and two Amaltas, also known as Golden Shower trees — near gate number 6 near Menoka cinema hall. The trees had been trimmed by the park authorities, but no further measures were taken for their retrieval.
Sanjay Jaisingh, a city-based tree lover and transplantation expert, learnt about the fallen trees from a morning walker friend and took the initiative to replant them voluntarily.
“Unable to reach KMDA authority to get a nod for saving the trees, I directly contacted Agnimitra Paul Ji a week back,” said Jaisingh. The urban development and municipal affairs minister responded promptly to his message, paving the way for the replantation drive.
A payloader, along with a 15-tonne hydraulic crane, was deployed to dig a pit of about 4 feet for the replantation. A four-member expert team began the replantation process around 6.30 am and completed the work in barely four hours.
After replantation, fungicide and root-aid treatments were carried out. Approved pesticides and growth stimulators were applied. While three trees had toppled, the giant Simul tree near gate no. 1 had tilted. It stood around 45 feet tall before the intervention.
“We first excavated a hole with the payloader, which is about 2.5 feet deep, and trimmed the tree to shorten it to 20 feet before placing it with the support of the movable crane,” recounted Jaisingh, who added that he would continue to monitor and care for the trees for their survival. “The advancing monsoon will help to regenerate the trees, but at the same time we have to be careful not to allow stagnation of excess water near the trunk as a heavy downpour can harm the health of the trees,” said a team member involved in the replantation.
“I hope the effort of restoring these trees will help to preserve the ecological balance of Dhakuria Lake,” said Somendra Mohan Ghosh, an environmentalist, who is also a regular visitor to the park. Walkers at the lake were initially taken aback when they saw the earth-moving machinery roll in. “I was surprised and thought there might be some demolition work taking place when noticing a bulldozer entering inside Rabindra Sarobar early in the morning, but I found it was used for saving the uprooted trees,” said Bibek Smaran Paul, 82, a morning walker.