The authorities in New Town will start a tree-trimming drive in all three action areas of the township, an official of the New Town Kolkata Development Authority (NKDA) said.

The drive, which is likely to start after a fortnight, is being undertaken to ensure that branches don’t fall on roads and the trees themselves don’t tip over during thundershowers and storms, the official said.

Infrastructure in New Town is largely built by the Housing Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco) and civic services and amenities that include upkeep of roads, maintenance of parks, water supply and solid waste management are provided to residents by the NKDA.

NKDA will also issue a directive to residents’ welfare associations of both big and small housing complexes, requesting them to adopt scientific pruning techniques so that they don’t list and fall because of an unequal distribution of canopy weight.

More than 400 trees were uprooted in and around Calcutta after being hit by gusty winds that accompanied Cyclone Remal.

Uprooted trees sprawled across roads are a common sight after every thunderstorm in Calcutta.

Branches break off easily during winds from trees like krishnachura, radhachura and sirish. Such trees have large and heavy canopies and are often seen on median dividers and sidewalks across Calcutta.

In New Town, however, the authorities have been planting slender and flexible trees that don’t have large canopies and are less likely to break branches or tip over during a storm.

The trees that are part the of avenue plantation and commonly seen along the Major Arterial Road (MAR), a 10.5km-long artery that connects New Town with Salt Lake on one end and airport at the other, include palm, coconut, cherry blossom and rosy trumpet. For the beautification of sidewalks, the NKDA has chosen the fox tail plant and other shrubs.

Apart from median dividers NKDA has also been planting fruit-bearing trees.

“We will request all the housing complexes to adopt scientific tree pruning techniques. If need be we can demonstrate to them the proper way of pruning trees,” said a senior NKDA official said.

Arjan Basu Roy, a naturalist who runs Nature Mates, an NGO that works for wildlife conservation as well as protecting green patches in urban spaces, said trimming trees on only one side destabilises the tree’s centre of gravity.