The young man succumbed to the injuries he received a week earlier when a tree branch fell on his head near Vasant Nagri township of Vasai East
It is not just the footbridge collapse that makes one wonder why we continue not to learn from our past tragedies. A heartrending report in this paper stated how a 28-year-old marketing executive in a private firm lost his life to what locals stated was the indifference of Vasai-Virar City Municipal Corporation (VVCMC) to their complaints, regarding dangerous, dead trees.
The young man succumbed to the injuries he received a week earlier when a tree branch fell on his head near Vasant Nagri township of Vasai East. He was returning on his two-wheeler after meeting his friend in Nalasopara when the branch fell on him. Though he was taken to hospital, he died at the facility one week later.
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It is shocking that there was little cognizance taken of complaints by locals of dead trees posing a danger to the public. We need to become much more proactive when it comes to branch cutting, trimming trees and stay alert to complaints by citizens, as locals are the first people on the ground to notice that this or that particular tree may pose a danger to residents and passers-by.
Of late, we have read and heard of so many incidents where tree branches or entire trees have fallen on people, resulting in fatalities. There is urgent need within the BMC to formalise a group to tackle this.
Can they work with the Tree Authority of India? Can we have experts on board to tell us how to go about this? Will it make more sense to depute one person or even put in an emergency helpline number solely dedicated to this problem?
This tragedy is huge, just like every loss of life is. Yet, it is magnified simply because it was so avoidable. We need a very doable plan put in action, especially as the monsoon is just a few months away and tree fall incidents become extremely frequent during that season.
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