An ancient tree, hundreds of years old, has been dead for over a year. The tree is still obstructing the access to a residential apartment. The local people here had previously informed the authorities and suggested that the tree to be cut down. However, nothing has been done until now, and the people are afraid that the tree could fall anytime and might hurt someone.
According to complaints filed by residents in the apartment No.4 on Ba Huyen Thanh Quan Street (Dien Bien Ward, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi), this milk flower tree had lived for over a century until about one year ago when the tree gradually died and began rotting.
Vu Thi Kim Lien, a resident from the apartment said, "About 2 months ago, I went to inform the authorities about this dead tree. They had come to inspect it, however, they said that they had to report it to upper authorities before anything could be done. We still haven't heard anything from them until now."
The concern grew bigger among the residents when a large branch of the dead tree fell to the ground on the evening of May 4. "Normally, during the day, many kids play around this area. It was fortunate that the branch fell at night. An elder resident was slightly injured as her head and hand were hit," Lien said.
According to our observations, this ancient tree is about 20 metres high and is almost 1 metre in diameter at its stump. The tree has been dead for a long time, with most of its bark peeled off exposing a light yellow inner layer. Above the stump towards the top of the tree, many scrubby branches dangle and look like they could drop at any moment.
Pointing at a stack of wood, Lien said with concern, "If nothing is done about removing this dead tree, it could fall down anytime and hurt someone."
In order to clarify what has caused the delay for the tree removal, we went to speak with Hanoi Park Co. Ltd. A representative of the company, Nguyen Duc Manh said that the company has received the complaints and already inspected the situation. After the survey, the company, had to go through numerous legal procedures before being granted the permission to cut down the dead tree.
According to Manh, the reason why it is taking so long for the problem to be managed is because this dead tree is among the type of trees that receive economic captial from the government. The company worked with their best efforts to have all the documents processed quickly, however, it is a long and time-consuming task that cannot be done overnight. At present, most of the necessary documents are completed. The only permission that the company is still waiting for is from the Department of Construction.
However, seeing how the dead tree coud pose serious threat to the life of the residents, the Hanoi Park Company has sent their people to cut down scrubby branches and twigs that could easily fall on May 6.
The dead tree obstructs access to the area in front of this apartment.
Branches that have recently fallen.