2 weak trees, 2 young lives snuffed out in Mumbai in 2 months

Two days after her 15th birthday, Aarika succumbed to her injuries on May 17.

“She had just graduated to the tenth standard,” Aarika’s uncle, S K Srivastava, recalled. A bright student, Aarika, wanted to become an engineer and had recently enrolled at a coaching centre for competitive exams, her uncle said.

Harshita (21) is still recovering. According to her father, Harish Kumar, she was shifted from Hinduja Hospital to Kokilaben Hospital for advanced neuro-physiotherapy.

The last bus ride home

After attending school for six hours, Vihan and his schoolmates from Universal High School in Tilak Nagar were returning home to Chembur’s Subhash Nagar when a large Peepal tree collapsed on the school van around 2.30 pm. Vihan was seated in the second-last row.

Locals, who rushed to help the trapped children, said the tree had collapsed over the middle of the bus. “We managed to rescue all the kids quickly, but one boy, on whom the tree had fallen directly, remained trapped for nearly 45 minutes as the tree was large and immovable,” Suresh Bahadur, a watchman who joined the rescue operation, recalled.

A student of Class 6, Vihan was the only child of Juhi and Gaurav Srivastava. The family moved to Mumbai from Delhi three years ago. According to neighbours, Vihan was good at academics and also loved playing football in his building’s garden. “The incident took place 10 minutes away from Vihan’s residence. The bus was supposed to drop Vihan next, but tragedy struck before that,” Tukaram Kate, a family friend and neighbour of the Srivastavas, told the Indian Express.

Two deaths, two weak trees

According to inspections by the civic garden cell, the trees that collapsed in the separate incidents were found to have weakened roots.

In Khar, the tree was situated within the compound of an under-construction site. Senior officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said that during inspection, they found that stones from the site had been stacked at the base of the tree, weakening its roots. The civic body’s internal probe linked rising cases of tree collapses to intense heat levels that caused ‘tree embolism’, a condition in which air bubbles block flow to the tree’s vascular system.

In Chembur, preliminary inspection by the garden cell showed that while the tree’s side roots were strong and sturdy, the core roots had given away. “While the probe is yet to conclude, there is a possibility that the tree’s roots had weakened owing to concretisation of the road that was recently concluded. We will investigate whether the surroundings of the tree had been excavated with proper care,” said an official.

In what has raised alarms, Hetal Gala, chairman of BMC’s garden and market committee, said, “During ongoing road work, the garden department had reportedly warned the road department that the tree had been damaged during construction work. We will probe this and if it is confirmed, strict action should be taken against those found negligent.”

A senior civic official cautioned against drawing conclusions before the inquiry is completed.

“The tree’s roots were on the footpath and even the stormwater drains had been diverted to protect the roots. We cannot directly link the weakening to concretisation as the matter is yet to be investigated,” the official said.

The official said the Peepal tree was around 40 to 50 years old, had been pruned before the monsoon in May and also undergone a safety inspection. “The survey found that tree was extremely safe,” the official said.

In the aftermath of the incident, the civic body has launched an audit of all old trees across the ward.