Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) on Wednesday constituted a two-member committee to conduct a thorough probe into the incident in which a tree collapsed on a school bus, killing a student, and suspended an assistant garden superintendent for alleged negligence.
BMC Commissioner Ashwini Bhide directed Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Special Engineering) Purushottam Malavade and Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Engineering) Shashank Bhore to conduct a detailed inquiry and submit a report within eight days.
The committee has also been asked to seek the opinion of experts and recommend measures to prevent the recurrence of such incidents, the civic body said in a release.
On June 30, an 11-year-old student died, and four others were injured when a peepal tree was uprooted and collapsed on a moving school bus carrying 13 students near Diamond Garden in suburban Chembur (West).
According to the BMC release, the uprooted peepal tree was estimated to be 60 to 70 years old, and no official public complaint regarding its condition had been received earlier.
The tree was surveyed on May 12 this year and was found to be healthy and structurally sound during an external inspection. It was also pruned on May 29 as part of the annual pre-monsoon tree maintenance exercise, when it was found to be safe, the release said.
In a related development, the BMC suspended an assistant garden superintendent pending a departmental inquiry for alleged negligence in connection with the fatal tree collapse.
In an order issued by the office of the Deputy Municipal Commissioner (Gardens), the civic body said Jagdish Bhoir, Assistant Garden Superintendent of M/West Ward in Mumbai's eastern suburbs, has been placed under suspension with immediate effect.
The BMC said that, at first glance, Bhoir appeared to have been negligent in connection with the incident and was therefore being suspended pending a preliminary departmental inquiry.
According to the civic body, it identified and removed 468 dead or hazardous trees and pruned the branches of 1,00,318 trees across the city in 2026 as part of its pre-monsoon preparedness.
It said 687 trees had fallen across Mumbai in 2023, including 180 on BMC land and 507 on private properties. The number stood at 653 in 2024 before rising to 855 in 2025.
Following the Chembur incident, the commissioner directed civic officials to undertake fresh pruning and a time-bound reinspection of potentially hazardous trees and ensure necessary action is taken to minimise the risk of similar accidents, the release said.
