Ashwini Bhide said strong winds over the past two days has caused extensive damage to the city’s green cover

Mumbai: It would be a “sweeping statement” to attribute tree-fall incidents solely to concretisation, BMC commissioner Ashwini Bhide said on Tuesday even as she announced that the civic body would engage expert institutions and arborists to study measures to strengthen roadside trees.The BMC will examine whether scientific pruning from an early stage can improve root systems, whether roots can be managed differently, and how trees can safely coexist with underground utilities beneath footpaths, Bhide added.She pointed out that trees crash every monsoon and the reasons vary, while admitting that this year’s green cover damage was significant as nearly 50% of the annual average of tree falls occurred in a single day. Bhide also announced that the BMC would revive its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for tree pruning after consulting experts, besides inspecting all roadside trees and carrying out trimming wherever required.Speaking to mediapersons, Bhide said strong winds over the past two days had caused extensive damage to the city’s green cover. There were 655 tree crashes in 2022, 687 in 2023, 653 in 2024, and 855 in 2025. Higher numbers in some previous years were linked to Cyclones Nisarga and Tauktae. This monsoon, 830 trees have fallen so far — 350 in public areas or along roadsides and 480 on private properties. In addition, 1,238 branches have fallen — 529 in public areas and 709 on private premises.Referring to the 2018 tree census, Bhide said Mumbai has around 29.8 lakh trees, including nearly two lakh roadside trees.“Roadside trees, at times, become risky and vulnerable because of weather conditions. In many places, these trees stand on footpaths, while utilities also run beneath them. Now, how do we make the two coexist? We ensure the area around trees is open to allow water to percolate, but that alone is not sufficient because the root system spreads extensively underground. We are exploring additional openings with grilles to improve water percolation. This has been implemented at a few locations, but on a very limited scale. We want to do it in a better manner and have identified a system,” Bhide said.The BMC chief further said that she has consulted experts, including botanist and former Mumbai University vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh. The BMC has also sought support from IIT and will also seek support from other good institutions to guide it on protecting existing trees during infrastructure projects. “In many cases, roots become entangled with underground utilities. We are examining how trees can be safeguarded, whether early pruning benefits the root system, or whether roots can be managed differently. The civic body will immediately start this exercise by engaging expert institutions and arborists,” Bhide said.