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Cyclone
Vardah hit Chennai on 12th December '16. We had never experienced such a cyclone as long as I remember. The wind blew with a hissing sound. We could hear breaking of the tree branches near our house. Since last year's December flood had given us a good lesson about natural calamity, this year lot of preparation was there by the State and Central Governments. More than human loss, this time natural loss was more. The avenue trees, huge ones too had fallen down. Many
very old trees inside the IIT, Kalakshetra, Theosophical society etc. had fallen down and repairs are still going on. Some trees were lifted and re-planted. Huge amount of
green waste was seen everywhere. Many compound walls have got huge gaps now. It will take a long long time to get back the green cover in Chennai.
Many volunteer groups have started planting new saplings everywhere. Rainfall this year, is not helping. Hope it rains soon as is predicted, which will help the trees to come up fast.
Let me write what happened to a beautiful tree behind my house:
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| This is my favourite tree in the neighbourhood. Everyday we could see many parrots coming and chatting on this tree. |
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| Same tree...spring is coming! This picture was taken in 2014. |
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| I have got many snaps of this tree in my album. My favourite one is this with Rufous Treepie birds! |
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| During the Vardah cyclone...this is the same tree which is shown in the first picture. Many branches have flown away (On 12.12.16). Picture taken from our window. |
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| Next day (13.12.16) |
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| This was taken on 9.1.17...It has survived! It should be back to normal like the first picture by next year! Parrots and other birds will be happy...Me too! |
Some trees which were affected during the cyclone are fighting back to come out now! Feel so happy to see them during our morning walk!
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| A tree which was damaged during Vardah...the new branches have started coming out (1.9.17) |
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| Many huge trees had fallen down but some like this, survived even after losing all the leaves which had flown away during Vardah. Many tree are like this in our neighourhood! |
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| On the Elliots beach road. The small ones are given support now by volunteers and they are coming back! ((9.1.17) |
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| Only a small base is remaining...still they are surviving! |
Now, let us wait for Chaennai to become green city soon...like Bengaluru ones was! Reading about many groups taking action! Hope for the best!
10 comments :
It's good to see volunteer groups springing into action planting saplings, etc. Hope some of the lost green cover will come back to Chennai.
Destination Infinity
nice photos
hope that tree grows again
DESTINATION INFINITY: Thanks for the first comment, Rajesh! Yes, hope many more trees come up in our city!
sm: Hope so, sm!
Such an uplifting post! We do become emotional when trees and small creatures suffer such onslaught and then fight back to life, don't we? I remember your favourite tree from so many of your posts :) So good to see it has survived.
I could see the vacuum of trees at many places, and some tall trees have also fallen in our street... but I was glad to see the bird’s habitation hasn’t disturbed in neighbourhood and the regular birds are back. Really sad to see the beautiful tree with broken limbs
Seeing all these I decided not to visit India during nov n December . Every year I get my flight cancelled , no internet, no water and current . I am done !
ZEPHYR: Many trees are struggling to come to life. I can see them everywhere. Like humans...
JEEVAN: Birds sound have come down in our area. But few parrots are back in the tree in the mornings. Hope for the best! Rain should help now!
SHILPA CHANDRASEKHERAN: Only last December and this December we faced natural calamity. Otherwise people come here mainly during the music season in December. Weather is changing in Chennai. It is not so hot nowadays...the number of hot months have come down. Not much power cut is here. We don't face much water problem too! Traffic, pollution is better compared to other cities here. I am talking about Chennai, mainly. This is positive thinking:)
Wonderful to see this post ... Felt so bad when Vardha had wiped out so many trees...
Sandhya - what a beautiful chronicle of the tree. The pictures taken over the years tell a beautiful story. Please do continue to maintain your photo record of the tree and write another blog post of how the tree has grown to greater heights!
ASHOK: Thank god...many people are taking efforts to bring the trees back by planting more saplings and replanting the old ones wherever possible.
PALLPAKK: This is my favourite tree, Pallavi! We watch this and the parrots sitting on them, every morning with a cup of coffee in our hands! Felt very sad when many branches flew off during Vardah. Thank god, new branches are coming out of the broken ones. Thank you, Pallavi!
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