500 fully grown trees lost in two recent thunderstorms in Punjab

Two thunderstorms in the past fortnight uprooted or damaged over 500 fully grown trees across many districts in Punjab, hinting at extreme thunderstorms and climate change approaching faster than imagined and knocking at the doors of the state too.

Officials of the Forest Department say usually such destruction of trees happens once in many years, but the past two weeks have been phenomenally bad for the state, with such a large number of trees damaged.

More extreme thunderstorms from climate change are likely to cause a greater number of large windthrow events in Punjab, which is adjacent to the hill state of Himachal Pradesh.

Dharminder Sharma, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Punjab, told The Tribune that as per the policy, the divisional forest officers plant new saplings and trees to replace the ones felled by storms. “We are ensuring that our staff takes care of the newly planted saplings till these grow good and strong. Every tree is important and plays a major role in reversing some effects of climate change and we are already promoting more trees for Punjab,” said Sharma.

Data collected by the Punjab Forest Department confirmed that 505 trees were lost in the recent storms, highlighting the fact that more forest cover was needed to ensure “minimal impact of losing tree cover”. While Patiala lost 90 trees, Sangrur lost 85, Gurdaspur 69, Amritsar 63 and Muktsar 45 trees.

A senior forest official said there was a need to have a full-fledged research on this topic so that researchers could develop a link between storm conditions in the atmosphere and forest mortality on land, helping fill a major gap in models.

“Climate change has caused powerful storms to grow in number and intensity, and back-to-back Western Disturbances accompanied by high-velocity winds in Punjab, need to be tracked,” he said, adding that even the rainfall pattern is changing and heavy to very heavy rain spells within hours are not a new norm.

“In recent decades, the frequency and severity of natural disturbances by strong winds and insect outbreaks has increased considerably in many forest ecosystems around the world. Future climate change is expected to further intensify disturbance regimes, which makes addressing disturbances in ecosystem management the priority,” said former member of the Punjab State Board for Wildlife, Jaskaran Sandhu.

Punjab State Power Corporation (PSPCL) has suffered losses worth Rs 14 crore due to the high-velocity winds that damaged towers and high-tension wires along with grids.

 ‘More forest cover needed’

Punjab Forest Dept said more forest cover was needed in the state to ensure minimal impact of losing tree cover. While Patiala lost 90 trees, Sangrur lost 85, Gurdaspur 69, Amritsar 63 and Muktsar 45 trees in the recent storms. There was a need to have a full-fledged research to develop a link between storm conditions in the atmosphere and forest mortality on land