It has been identified that more than 300 trees, located within the Colombo Municipal Council areas pose a potential threat to the people and properties and a special committee has been appointed to look into the matter and remove the threats immediately, a minister said.

“There are more than 100,000 large trees located within the CMC areas and 300 out of them have been identified as a clear threat to people or properties,” State Minister of Defence Premitha Bandara Tennakoon told Daily Mirror yesterday.

However, he said that the special committee appointed to look into the issue, will assess the extent of the threat and give a report. “It may be removing branches of the trees or complete removal of the trees,” the minister said.

The state minister said that he chaired a discussion on preventive action on dangerous trees falling and precautionary measures to mitigate possible hazards in suburban areas at the Disaster Management Center (DMC) in Colombo yesterday.

The Ministry of Defence said that the State Minister gave instructions to the relevant officials to prepare a proper system which would ensure trees that are most suited and of good quality are planted in suburban areas.

As a short-term solution, the State Minister advised officials to commence suitable programmes, especially in the Colombo Municipal Council limits after conducting proper studies.

He also directed official of the National Building Research Oragnization to obtain technical assistance from institutions such the Department of National Botanical Gardens and University of Peradeniya and carryout studies on technical methods used by countries such as Singapore to identify trees at risk of falling in suburban areas and to prepare a long-term solution to prevent such accidents.