2 die, 65 trees topple as gusty winds leave trail of destruction in its tail across city

Kolkata: One person was crushed by a heavy tree branch and another died when a chunk of concrete from a dilapidated building crashed on him while three others were seriously injured by uprooted trees in Friday afternoon’s storm, in which over 65 trees toppled and around 50 others suffered damage.

The first death was reported near Prinsep Ghat around 2.30 pm. According to onlookers, a part-time labourer was picking mangoes that had dropped from a tree next to the Circular Railway track when a heavy branch came crashing down on him. A section of the tree also fell on the overhead traction line of the Circular Railway, snapping power and disrupting train services. The branch that fell on the traction line caught fire.

In the second incident reported from the Chetla area around 3.40 pm, a concrete chunk from a dilapidated building in Pitambar Ghatak Lane fell on Pravin Kumar Thakur, 36, a local resident hurrying home in the storm. A profusely bleeding Thakur was pulled out of the rubble and rushed to SSKM Hospital, where doctors pronounced him dead.

Around 2.38 pm, the trunk of a tree uprooted by the storm fell on a couple near Sree Guru Ashram on Durga Prasanna Paramahansha Road in the Naktala area. Both Bijoy Krishna Rana, 29, and his wife Bristi Rana Saha, 18, residents of Aurobinda Nagar, sustained multiple injuries and are undergoing treatment at MR Bangur Hospital.

At 4 pm, another tree toppled on Kidderpore Road near the South Gate of Fort William in the Hastings area. Sumona Ghosh, 20, riding a scooter, got injured when the tree crashed on her. She survived the crash and is admitted to SSKM Hospital and is out of danger.

Two persons were also injured in Salt Lake when a tree fell on a car near Tank No. 3. Another tree fell on a car near Indira Bhawan, but no one was injured. In Kolkata, too, several vehicles were also crushed under toppling trees. A tree fell on a bus in front of the Eden Gardens. A car was damaged when a branch fell on it at Harsih Mukherjee Road.

According to sources in the KMC parks department, around 65 trees were uprooted across the city, many of them in the Maidan and Chowringhee area. Another 50 trees suffered damage, several of them in Rabindra Sarobar.

KMC teams were alerted about trees that had crashed at JL Nehru Road, Mayo Road, Cathedral Road, Theatre Road, Park Street, Russell Street, Kyd Street (near MLA Hostel), Rabindra Sadan, Strand Road, Beliaghata Main Road, Tallah Park, New Alipore and Southern Avenue. Trees also fell inside the CMRI campus.

Traffic was severely disrupted as uprooted trees blocked several roads. Damage to signal posts was also reported across the city, including Salt Lake. Urban development minister Agnimitra Paul has convened a meeting of electricity utilities CESC and WBSEDCL on Wednesday to discuss ways to secure decorative lamp posts and exposed streetside cables to prevent electrocution deaths.

The thunderstorm also shattered four large tempered and toughened glass panels on the South City Mall façade above the main entrance. The presence of a canopy over the entrance acted as a shield that stopped the glass shards from striking anyone below. The area was cordoned off and shoppers diverted to other entrances. The hole in the façade was later plugged with plyboards. Sources said it would take 15-20 days to get the glass panels manufactured to repair the façade.