Chembur tree fall incident: BMC’s report faces scrutiny over clean chit to officials
The BMC has cleared its own officials of wrongdoing following a fatal tree-fall incident in Chembur, Mumbai, instead placing responsibility on contractors. Urban forestry experts have criticized the report, calling for more scientific, continuous tree risk assessments.
Why it matters
The incident highlights ongoing tensions between urban development, infrastructure maintenance, and public safety in rapidly growing cities.
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.
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