Chembur tree fall incident: BMC’s report faces scrutiny over clean chit to officials
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) inquiry into tree-falling in Chembur, in which a child was killed, concluded holding the contractors accountable and giving a clean-chit to its own officials from garden and road departments, with recommendation for mandatory tree-root protection clause in all the tenders. However, urban forestry experts argue that the findings overlook the shared responsibility of civic agencies and that a one-size-fits-all clause is neither practical nor sufficient to prevent future tree collapses. On June 30, Vihaan Shrivastav died and several school children were injured after a Peepal tree fell on a school bus near Diamond Garden in Mumbai’s Chembur (West). It took one death for the BMC to constitute a panel and recommended to put SOPs in place for tree pruning, regular ‘Tree Risk Assessment’ and ‘GIS-based inventory’ of all roadside trees. “Tree risk assessment cannot be a post-tragedy ritual,” B. N Kumar of NatConnect Foundation said. He pointed out that it must be a continuous, scientific exercise led by a senior officer of the rank of Additional Municipal Commissioner, reporting directly to …
