A full-grown Mahogany tree on the footpath along Harish Mukherjee Road crashed near Jatin Das Park on a stationary taxi and injured a cyclist on Tuesday morning

The 51-year-old cyclist, a security guard at SSKM Hospital who was heading to his workplace, had a close shave as the thick trunk missed him by a whisker.

He suffered from back injuries and has been admitted to the hospital.

The incident on Harish Mukherjee Road happened days after a man who took shelter under a tree in Golf Green was crushed to death after it fell on him.

Many said the taxi driver, who had parked his vehicle along the kerb and stepped out to have tea, had a miraculous escape.

Police said fortunately there were no other vehicles on that stretch of Harish Mukherjee Road that usually remains busy on any working day.

“It was sheer luck that no one was seriously injured. The way the tree fell covering the entire Harish Mukherjee Road, had there been cars and motorcycles on the road, the chances of injuries and fatalities would have increased many times,” said an officer of Bhowanipore police station.

KMC officials said the tree had a three-feet diameter with a girth of around seven feet.

An official of the parks and squares department of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) said softened soil because of the rains and the top-heavy crown could be the reasons behind the fall.

“In general, when footpaths are being made or roads are being expanded, roots are often cut short, weakening the tree’s grip. Many trees fall under such circumstances,” said the official.

Traffic on Harish Mukherjee Road was stalled for the next few hours to allow the KMC and disaster management group to chop the tree’s trunk and branches into pieces and clear the road by removing them.

Trees getting uprooted — often injuring pedestrians or motorists or damaging property — have become common in a city where several major thoroughfares are lined up with leafy trees but very few are taken care of.

Most of them are either top-heavy because of unscientific pruning or have loosened their grips on the soil due to concretisation around the trees