In Mumbai, falling trees take more lives than fires: RTI reply

RTI REPLY STATED THAT MAXIMUM INCIDENTS (21,452) WERE RELATED TO TREE FALLING, WHILE 20,074 WERE DUE TO FIRES, SHORT CIRCUITS

MUMBAI: A Right To Information (RTI) reply by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) disaster cell has revealed that, over the last six years, Mumbai witnessed as many as 49,179 incidents that have caused deaths or injuries to the locals.

The reply stated that, of the total number of incidents, most of them (21,452) were related to tree falling, followed by incidents of fires and short circuits (20,074). Since 2013, as many as 987 people have died in these incidents, the response stated.

The RTI was filed by activist Shakeel Ahmed Shaikh.

The civic body’s response could throw a spanner in works of the Centre, which had recently released a liveability survey that placed Mumbai among the top three “liveable” cities .

The data, given by the disaster cell and compiled from 2013 until July 2018, stated that the most number of deaths, about 328, was due to people falling in manholes, nullahs, rivers, wells, creeks or drowning at sea. This was followed by 234 deaths due to house or wall collapse incidents. Nearly 208 deaths were registered due to fire or short circuits.

The records account for 85 deaths due to people being trapped, 30 deaths in tree fall incidents, and 22 due to road oil spills.

Least number of deaths was recorded due to gas leakage or landslide which both stood at seven each.

Accidents that did not fit in the other categories were responsible for 66 deaths, it stated.

“In the last six years, there have been 987 deaths due to various disasters. These many people were not killed even in a terrorist attack lately,” said Shaikh.

“...With such a high number of deaths in incidents that are avoidable, how can the city be termed most liveable?” he said.

Mahesh Narvekar, director, disaster management cell, however, said the data represented complaints and did not reflect the on-ground numbers. “...For example, if there is flooding... we receive about a 100 calls... However, the incident is only one.”

Meanwhile, the RTI reply mentions that 49,179 incidents were recorded by the disaster cell since 2013, and not “calls”.