Lack of staff hinders protect trees

A lack of staff has led to insufficient monitoring of ageing, diseased trees, which are susceptible to collapse, across the city.

City Parks and Cemeteries Agency head Catharina Suryowati said that the agency’s officials routinely patrol on the lookout for decaying trees throughout the year, especially ahead of the rainy season with its accompanying high winds.

“However, we have only so many personnel to deploy. We cannot effectively monitor all [the city’s] vulnerable trees,” Catharina said.

The agency only has a total of around 250 workers who can be deployed to monitor and handle dangerous trees. Each of Jakarta’s five municipalities has 20 patrol officers, with 20 more at the provincial level, and three more in each of Jakarta’s 44 districts.

Catharina confirmed, however, that agency officials were on 24-hour standby for any fallen-tree incidents.

“We are seeking assistance from related city institutions, including the Jakarta Fire Service and the Transportation Agency. We are also calling on community leaders and local residents to help monitor for fallen trees,” Catharina said.

The agency has a total of 18 trucks and three crane trucks to handle dangerous trees.

Jakarta has more than 4 million trees scattered across a 65,000-hectare area; more than 70,000 of which are located along main transportation networks.

Agency data reveals that around 2,100 trees located along the city’s main, arterial and connector roads are in a very bad state and susceptible to collapse.

Catharina said that agency workers had routinely trimmed trees and cut down those in very bad condition.

“But there are more trees than there are personnel,” she said.

More than 100 fallen trees have been recorded this year, with most of them — a total of 58 — occurring in March, during the transition period between the wet and dry season.

On Tuesday, a 15-meter-tall tree fell in the grounds of the Mega Pro Hotel on Jl. Proklamasi, Central Jakarta. The tree damaged three parked cars, but no one was injured in the incident.

The hotel has refused to compensate the damage, saying the trees were the property of the city administration.

The Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) has warned of tornadoes in the coming weeks as a result of the season transition.

BMKG announced that the transition from dry to wet weather would create whirlwinds originating from the formation of rain clouds.

The BMKG also said that extreme winds might hit the city from the west through the neighboring Cilegon mountain range, thus creating erratic wind patterns around Jakarta.