BENGALURU: An NGO staffer, heading to work, suffered serious head and shoulder injuries after a tree crashed on the autorickshaw he was travelling in, in Sadashivanagar police limits on Tuesday.
The injured, Jeeva M, has been kept under observation in ICU, while the autorickshaw driver managed to escape with minor injuries. BBMP officials said the incident occurred around 12.30 pm.
Apart from the autorickshaw, a multi-utility vehicle (MUV) too was damaged and the driver suffered a fracture in his hand. This is the third such incident since August 12.
Deputy Conservator of Forest, BBMP, BLG Swamy said the range forest officer and other BBMP forest wing officials rushed to the spot and shifted the injured to a private hospital.
“Because of the impact of the tree fall, the victim has suffered a serious head injury and doctors have kept him under observation for 24 hours. The patient also requires spinal cord surgery later. The family was informed and the police are in touch with them. The MUV driver, identified as Darshan Sajjan, suffered a fracture in his hand and was discharged from hospital. The Palike will foot their hospital bills,” Swamy added.
BBMP forest teams have been stationed across all the zones in the city to attend to tree fall and uprooting cases since June. The teams received hundreds of calls in June and also for a few days in July because of strong monsoon winds in those months, but no deaths or injuries were reported then. Only in the last ten days, there has been a death and injuries to several people because of tree falls.
The teams have intensified pruning of trees since the beginning of August and it will continue in September too, when the city receives high monsoon rainfall.