Mumbai Tree Safety: Activist Serves Legal Notice To BMC, TMC Over Alleged Unscientific Concretisation

Mumbai, July 14, 2026: Amid a spate of fatal tree collapse incidents in Mumbai and Thane, an environmental activist has served a legal notice to both municipal corporations, accusing them of allowing unscientific concretisation around trees and failing to address the growing threat to urban tree safety.

The civic bodies have been given seven days to frame a Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), survey vulnerable trees and begin corrective action, failing which the matter will be moved before the Bombay High Court.

Tree collapse incidents this monsoon have left three people dead in Mumbai and one in Thane. Advocate Ronita Bhattacharya Bector, on behalf of environmental activist Rohit Joshi, has served an urgent legal notice on the Municipal Commissioners of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC), seeking an immediate survey of dangerous trees and a halt to unscientific deconcretisation.

The notice alleges that over 1,856 trees have collapsed in the past two weeks alone due to root damage caused by indiscriminate concretisation around tree bases.

Notice Challenges Civic Guidelines

Joshi has also criticised the BMC's July 3 circular, calling its prescribed 0.3- to 1-metre open space around tree trunks "grossly inadequate". Citing scientific studies and the IRC-103:2022 Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities, he has demanded a minimum 2-metre radius and 3-metre depth around trees be kept completely free of concrete to ensure healthy root growth and stability.

The notice also objects to the practice of using concrete cutters to sever tree roots during the monsoon, warning that it significantly increases the risk of tree collapse.

It calls for all deconcretisation work to be carried out only under the supervision of qualified arborists, horticulturists and environmental experts. Further, the petitioner has urged the civic bodies to fulfil their statutory obligations under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975, contending that the Tree Authority is legally bound to assist cooperative housing societies in felling, pruning and maintaining dangerous trees. The notice alleges that the TMC has failed to provide such assistance on private properties.

Experts Raise Safety Concerns

Stalin D., Director of NGO Vanashakti, has written to the BMC, terming its July 3 circular "unscientific". He said the prescribed 0.3- to 1-metre open space and one-metre depth around trees are grossly inadequate, arguing that large trees require far greater lateral root space for anchorage and nourishment.

Warning that shallow tree basins can trap water, weaken stability and increase the risk of collapse, Stalin has urged the BMC to withdraw the circular and replace it with scientifically sound guidelines.

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Following an inspection ordered by the High Court in a pending PIL, volunteers and the petitioner identified around 50 dangerous trees in Mumbai and 16 in Thane requiring urgent intervention.

A survey of 1,115 trees in Mumbai found that 684 (61.34%) required immediate scientific deconcretisation, while 50 were classified as dead or hazardous. In Thane, all 60 trees inspected required urgent deconcretisation.

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