Trees cut for stormy weather

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Planting leafy trees across the city may be good to keep the air fresh, but it could spell danger on stormy days as is the case in Jakarta when the city enters the rainy season.

Jakarta Parks Agency head Sarwo Handhayani said on Tuesday that her agency had started trimming trees, especially leafy ones, fearing that trees and branches may fall on passersby.

"We started today with the trimming of trees near Hotel Mulia Senayan. We will soon launch simultaneous activities in all municipalities," Handhayani said at City Hall.

The Jakarta Post observed several workers loading cut branches from at least three trees onto a truck on Jl. Asia Afrika in South Jakarta.

Some workers were also seen cutting back trees that touched power lines on Jl. Matraman Raya in East Jakarta.

Sunday's heavy downpour and strong winds broke off tree branches on Jl. Jend. Sudirman in South Jakarta where fallen branches obstructed a busway lane, while on Jl. Simprug Raya, South Jakarta, a fallen tree forced police to reroute traffic.

Early last year, the violent storm Linda flooded streets and uprooted hundreds of trees -- about 300 in South Jakarta alone -- causing massive traffic jams throughout the city, disrupting train services for hours and damaging houses and passing vehicles.

The administration apparently has mistakenly planted trees that were not so sturdy since the 1970s when Jakarta governor Ali Sadikin, with the goal of making the capital greener, planted a massive number of trees in the city. Such greening programs have also being adopted by other governors, including Sutiyoso, who issued the slogan "Regreen Jakarta and Chirping Birds" (Jakarta Ijo Royo-royo dan Burung Berkicau) under which the administration will supposedly plant a total of 10 million trees by 2010.

Unfortunately, urban planners said that most of the trees planted by those governors, like angsana, kenari, banyan, palms, khaya and poinciana trees are prone to falling during heavy rain.

Mahogany and tanjung are among the stronger trees highly recommended by the experts.

Currently, the city has already planted about five million trees. More than 500,000 trees are old ones that reach a height of 12 meters and over.