Dubai: A swift move by Dubai Municipality to give life to a fallen tree has won the heart of a tourist who had sought help to save the tree that got uprooted in Saturday’s rough weather conditions.
Gulf News on Monday tracked down the Twitter user who used social media to rescue the tree. Praveen Kumar Shanmugham from the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu said he had flown into Dubai to celebrate New Year and his birthday on January 12. Shanmugham, who runs a software company in Bangalore, Karnataka, said he had first shared the picture and video of the uprooted tree shortly after 3pm.
Shanmugham (Twitter name PK Shan) first shared the picture and video of the uprooted tree shortly after 3pm. In his posts, he mentioned that he was new to Dubai and as a tourist, he did not know who could help save the tree.
Shanmugham pointed out that there were only two trees standing next to each other in an empty sandy ground. His desperate plea to save the uprooted tree lying with its root ball still intact was addressed to various government entities.
Dubai Municipality, though it was not tagged in Shanmugham's tweets, responded within half an hour and sought more details about the location in Al Nahda to take action. Shan then provided further details saying that it was behind Zulekha Hospital and shared the contact number of a nearby supermarket also.
At 7.37pm, the civic body posted an image of the tree that had been replanted in the same area. The branches had been pruned before the tree got replanted. Dubai Municipality also thanked Shanmugham for alerting about the uprooted tree.
In turn, the tourist shared a post sprinkled with many emojis to praise Dubai for taking superfast action. “Wow! Love you Dubai. It’s an excellent work done by the team. Speechless. The best friend on earth of man is the tree. When we use the tree respectfully & economically, we have one of the greatest resources on the earth #salutedubai (sic).
“I am honoured that my request has been taken care of! I respect @DubaiMunicipality ‘s fantabulous team work,” he said in another tweet. He also tagged Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai and the Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, saying “proud of your country sir.”
At 9.22pm, Shanmugham shared a photo of him standing next to the tree with his palms folded and captioned it “ThankyouDubai #RespectfulDubai.”
The municipality once again responded to his post and stated: “Thank you for sharing your kind words, we are always at your service.”
“I had never expected the tree to be replanted within a few hours. Dubai has really amazed me. It shows that this place is not just about skyscrapers. I consider this tree as Dubai’s birthday gift to me,” Shanmugham told Gulf News.
