Across India, urban trees are increasingly being viewed as hazards during the monsoon, often blamed for crushing vehicles, blocking roads and causing fatalities. However, healthy and structurally stable trees do not typically collapse solely because of rain. Rainfall and strong winds frequently serve only as the final trigger, while the underlying damage accumulates over many years through extensive concretisation around tree trunks, repeated excavation, careless utility works, indiscriminate pruning, severe soil compaction and continuous neglect of critical root systems.
Mumbai has already demonstrated the scale of this growing crisis. During the first week of July alone, more than 1,100 trees collapsed across the city, surpassing the total number of tree falls recorded during the entire 2025 monsoon season. The incidents claimed three lives, including that of a schoolchild, while hundreds of vehicles suffered damage. These events have prompted serious questions about whether increasingly extreme weather alone can explain the widespread failures or whether extensive road concretisation, damaged root systems and inadequate arboricultural management have significantly contributed to the problem.
Indian cities have become increasingly efficient at delivering roads, flyovers, drainage systems, footpaths, metro corridors, pipelines and underground utility networks. Every major infrastructure project is supported by engineering drawings, construction schedules, contractors and inspection mechanisms. However, one critical aspect is frequently overlooked: ensuring the survival of existing mature trees throughout the planning, construction and post-construction phases.
Publicly available Tree Protection Plans are rarely prepared or disclosed. Excavation is routinely carried out within sensitive root zones without adequate protection of structural roots. Trenches are dug close to mature trees, pavements are extended directly up to trunks, heavy machinery compacts surrounding soil and mature trees are left standing within isolated patches of concrete. Months or even years later, severe weather exposes the accumulated damage as weakened trees collapse. The rainfall is blamed, while the years of preventable deterioration remain largely unnoticed.
The issue extends beyond environmental conservation and directly affects public safety, urban planning and administrative accountability. Every bridge collapse is investigated, every aircraft accident undergoes detailed analysis and every building failure leads to structural inquiries and responsibility. Similar scientific scrutiny, the article argues, should be applied whenever a mature tree collapses.
Each fallen tree should trigger a comprehensive post-incident investigation documenting its species, estimated age, overall health, root condition, pruning history, soil quality, evidence of fungal decay, the extent of surrounding concretisation and details of any civil or utility works conducted within its root zone during previous years. Authorities and executing agencies should also disclose the protective measures adopted before, during and after infrastructure projects affecting nearby trees. Without systematic investigations, preventable failures risk continuing to be misclassified as unavoidable natural disasters.
While climate change is undoubtedly increasing the frequency of intense rainfall and stronger winds, the article states that changing weather patterns should not become an excuse for failures in governance. Instead, more extreme weather conditions demand scientifically managed urban forests supported by healthier root systems, larger uncompacted soil volumes, qualified arborists, regular structural risk assessments and strict protection measures during infrastructure development.
The article further argues that the solution is neither the indiscriminate removal of mature trees before every monsoon nor excessive pruning carried out in the name of public safety. Poorly executed and excessive pruning can weaken trees, reduce canopy cover, increase susceptibility to disease and ultimately create the very structural weaknesses such practices claim to prevent.
Instead, urban trees should be recognised as critical public infrastructure deserving the same level of planning and protection as roads, bridges and buildings. Every infrastructure project should include mandatory Tree Protection Plans, root zones should be accurately mapped before excavation begins and independent arborists, rather than project contractors, should certify compliance with tree protection measures. Cities should maintain publicly accessible inventories documenting the health, maintenance history and structural condition of mature trees, while preservation of existing trees, rather than plantation alone, should become the primary measure of successful urban forestry.
The collapse of the East of Kailash trees, like the loss of more than 1,100 trees in Mumbai, did not occur overnight. According to the article, these incidents reflect years of cumulative damage caused by repeated decisions that ignored the living systems beneath the ground. Unless Indian cities begin protecting mature trees with the same seriousness applied to roads, bridges and other public infrastructure, every monsoon is likely to bring more fallen trees, damaged vehicles, disrupted traffic and preventable loss of life.
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