“Since we lost a huge amount of oxygen, carbon di-oxide levels would go up. With it, the temperature could rise by one or two degrees Celsius,” said P Sudhakar, joint director, CPR Environmental Education Centre, Chennai.

Winds that lasted barely three hours wiped out 10,682 trees, as pegged by the Greater Chennai Corporation. Experts said that it could take up to a decade for regeneration of the trees.

“We need to plant trees at a 1:3 ratio since survival rates depend on the soil type, maintenance and other factors,” said N Mathivanan, Director, Centre for Advanced Study, University of Madras, indicating that to make up for the trees lost, more than 30,000 saplings have to be planted.

While it is known that the loss of the trees could lead to soil erosion, modification in soil composition and affect the balance of microorganisms in the soil, Sudhakar said that trees also absorb tiny pollutants, keeping air pollution in check.

However, as a silver lining, botanists said that this could be an opportunity to plant indigenous species of plants in the place of exotic species that were introduced during the British period.

“According to a survey that we did, about 80-90 per cent of the trees that were uprooted were exotic trees, whereas only a few native species were uprooted while most escaped with broken branches,” said Mathivanan.

However, these indigenous species can be relatively slow growing with some species like Garcinia Spicata (the Bitter Garcinia) taking up to five years. Even so, with the high levels of oxygen that they produce, the pros far outweigh the cons, said ethnobotanist S Auromougame.

Environmental expert AvvaiNayagam said Chennai being a coastal district is classified as NeithalNilam and tropical species like Palm tree is the best suited having deep root system which can withstand cyclones. .