3 min readMumbaiJul 1, 2026 12:43 AM IST
Hours after a large peepal tree crashed onto a school van in Chembur, killing an 11-year-old boy and injuring four students, a preliminary inspection by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) found that the tree’s central root system had weakened and collapsed. Civic officials said they would investigate whether recent road concretisation around the tree had contributed to the failure.
The tree fell on a school van carrying 12 students from Universal High School on Road No. 11 in Subhash Nagar on Tuesday afternoon. Eleven-year-old Vihan Srivastav was killed while four other students were injured.
After the debris was cleared, officials from the BMC’s garden department and the Mumbai Fire Brigade inspected the site. “Prima facie, upon inspection of the collapsed tree, we observed that while the tree’s side roots were stable, the roots at its core had weakened and given away,” a civic official said.
“While the cause of its weakening is yet to determined, there is a possibility that the tree’s roots had weakened owing to a concretisation of the road which had been recently concluded. We will investigate whether the surrounding of the tree had been excavated with no proper care,” the official told The Indian Express.
Residents said the stretch had undergone road concretisation between March and April this year. A senior civic official, however, cautioned against drawing conclusions before the inquiry is completed. “The tree’s roots were on the footpath and even the storm water 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 added that the peepal tree was around 40 to 50 years old, had been pruned before the monsoon in May and had also undergone a safety inspection in March. “The survey found that tree was extremely safe,” the official said.
The incident has once again put the spotlight on the impact of road concretisation on Mumbai’s trees. Environmentalists have repeatedly warned that concrete, asphalt, paver blocks and construction debris around tree bases restrict root growth, reduce water percolation and weaken trees over time.
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Residents described the collapse as unprecedented. “Such an incident has never occurred in this neighborhood before. When the tree fell, it almost fell like a huge thunder,” said Kunj Lal, a watchman in a nearby building.
In the wake of the accident, the BMC said it will undertake an intensive survey across the city to identify old and potentially dangerous trees.
The tragedy comes amid a spike in tree fall incidents following the onset of the monsoon. BMC records show that between Monday and Tuesday morning, the city reported 36 tree collapse incidents, including 23 in the western suburbs, six in the eastern suburbs and seven in the island city.
Before the monsoon, the civic body had targeted the pruning of 84,819 trees and the removal of 397 dead trees identified during surveys.
