In a tragic incident involving a tree collapse on Friday morning, a 45-year-old man lost his life, while his wife was left with grievous injuries.

The incident occurred at S.V. Road in Goregaon (west) around 7 am on Friday. Fire brigade officials rushed to the spot and tried to rescue the victims right away, but could not save Parag Pawaskar’s life. Mr Pawaskar and his wife were rushed to the nearby Bhagwati hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival. His wife is undergoing treatment there.

Mr Pawaskar was returning to his car after dropping his daughter at school when the tree fell on his parked car and an auto rickshaw parked nearby. The tree immediately crushed the car with Mr Pawaskar and his wife trapped inside it. The fire brigade took about 40 minutes to rescue the victims.

Fire officials confirmed that the tree was in BMC premises and did not belong to private owners. When asked about the BMC’s stand regarding the incident, deputy municipal commissioner (general administration) Sudhir Naik said, “It is an unfortunate incident. At present, the BMC does not have a blanket policy regarding compensation to victims of tree collapses. We decided on the same on a case-to-case basis.”