With no storm and no wind, a huge tree suddenly uprooted and killed the renowned artist and National Award-winning filmmaker Khalid Mahmud Mithu. Since then, people see many of Dhaka's old trees as a living terror. Nature and environmental activists say that, for all our love of trees, such an accident could happen again unless sick trees are properly looked after.

Since Mithu's death everything has carried on as before. Many half-dead trees still stand in Dhaka. People walk beneath them without a thought for their safety, and rickshaws and other vehicles pass under them. It was in just such a setting that Khalid Mahmud Mithu lost his life four days ago, crushed by a suddenly uprooted tree.

Then everything returned to how it was. Yet with his life Mithu seemed to point a finger at something, showing how unsafe this city is if we are not careful.

Pedestrians say urgent action is needed, as the month of Baishakh is coming and storms could uproot trees. They also believe accidents can be avoided with proper supervision.

By the reckoning of the Environment Journalists Forum, 5 per cent of the trees in densely populated Dhaka are sick. These need to be either restored or removed.

Kamrul Islam Chowdhury, president of the Environment Journalists Forum, said: "It is our duty to restore the trees that are weak and sick, and to remove those that cannot be restored."

Nature activist Jashodhan Pramanik has identified flaws in urban development as the reason the trees are sick. "Trees planted in Dhaka do not have a main taproot. They survive on their side roots. Because those side roots have been sealed under concrete again and again, the side roots have died too. That is why accidents like this have begun," he said.

The lack of coordination between departments and ministries has come up.

"Coordination is needed here, and there is none," said Kamrul Islam Chowdhury. "The Forest Department, for example, should plant the tree, care for it and fell it again when needed. But it does not. The Roads and Highways Department also has some responsibility; there are many trees beside its roads. The care work is not done regularly."

The mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation says there are questions over who is responsible for the trees. "Coordination is certainly needed here, and someone needs to be given specific responsibility," said the southern city's mayor, Sayeed Khokon. "Until that is done, Dhaka South City Corporation will do this work for the people's needs."

City dwellers are waiting for effective action. Trees protect public life and the environment, but when a tree becomes a killer, the responsibility lies not with the tree but with people.

There are countless such trees in this city, rootless with weak trunks. Residents of the capital say they are waiting for action to make sure these do not cause deaths.

Source: Shykh Seraj. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.