Chandigarh-based lawyers seek probe to prevent tree fall incidents

Chandigarh, July 15 (IANS) The accidental death of a 16-year-old student with falling of a 250-year-old giant heritage tree in a prestigious all-girl Carmel Convent School in Chandigarh this week has caught the attention of Punjab and Haryana High Court city-based lawyers to prevent horrific tragedies in the future.

Acting on a public interest litigation of Kunal Mulwani, a resident of Sector 21, the high court has sought responses from the local administration, the municipal corporation and the school authorities on a plea of an inquiry into the tragedy of July 8 by an high court judge the death of Heerakshi, the Class X student.

The petition placed before the Bench of Chief Justice Ravi Shanker Jha and Justice Arun Palli, Mulwani said the inquiry would be ordered not only to "fix responsibility, but also to appoint committees to frame proper guidelines to be followed rigorously in a periodical manner to avoid the recurrence of any such untoward incident in the future, especially in and around the schools and other public places".

A 70-ft tall peepal (fig), as per the UT administration, was the heritage tree situated in a private property. One student was crushed to death and 18 of her schoolmates sustained injuries after it fell on them while they were sitting beneath its shade during the recess.

A woman attendant of the school also sustained grievous injuries. The left arm of one of the students had to be amputated to save her life.

Senior advocate Chetan Mittal, on behalf of the petitioner, sought directions for calling statistical data of the past five years on the maintenance, identification and removal of trees threat to life and property of public at large.

Directions were also sought for further calling the data regarding the complaints received in this regard and its redress.

Mittal also sought directions to the respondents to plan and take all necessary steps to ensure safety of life and property of the public at large and avoid any unfortunate incidents or accidents arising out of falling trees, besides electricity and telephone poles, in view of the undertaking given in 2014 in a matter placed before the high court.

The PIL apprised the court of the difficulty in getting trees pruned from the departments concerned and highlighted the absence of a schedule for regular pruning of trees.

The high court asked which authority was responsible for maintenance of heritage trees and if there was negligence on part of any authority that led to the accident. It also sought status of pruning of trees from the authorities.

In Chandigarh, a tree with an estimated age of 100 years, or more, is declared a heritage property.

Chandigarh had a total of 31 heritage trees. Of them, 15 are 'peepal', seven are 'bargad', four each of banyan and mango and one 'imli'.