Our little soul has been taken away: Grandfather of Carmel Convent girl

Tribune News Service

Naina Mishra

Chandigarh, July 8

The parents of 16-year-old Heerakshi, a class X student, who succumbed to head injury in the tree tragedy, are shattered at the loss of their younger daughter. “Tree took her life away,” said her inconsolable mother.

The parents were away to Shimla and rushed to the PGIMER soon after receiving a call from the school authorities. They reached the hospital around 4 pm. The family resides in Sector 43 and runs a sweets shop in Sector 35.

Victim’s grandmother fainted twice after hearing the news. “Please check her pulse, she may still be alive. This cannot be real,” she kept murmuring. Her grandfather said: “My little soul did not deserve this. I fail to understand any of this.”

“She was a bright student. We never imagined she would not return from school. Her parents, who were in Shimla, called me up and asked me to reach the PGI, as she was taken there. We waited for half an hour, but the news of her death had already started circulating in the social media. Her parents kept asking me to verify this, as we waited for an answer from doctors, who later declared her dead on arrival,” said Rajeev Kumar, uncle of the girl.

Blaming the school authorities, Kumar said the area could have been fenced to prevent students from going there. “This is a lapse on part of the school,” he said, as the family pressed for a complaint against the school authorities.

The family questioned the need to conduct post-mortem. “We have lost our child who cannot come back now. What will the postmortem do? We have no strength to put up a fight?” said a relative.

Magisterial probe on

The District Magistrate on Friday ordered a magisterial inquiry to look into the incident wherein a 250-year-old tree fell on the premises of Carmel Convent School, causing injury to students and staff of the school. The magisterial inquiry will be headed by the SDM (Central) and the Executive Engineer, Horticulture, UT. The Range Forest Officer, Forest Department, will be the member of the inquiry committee, which will submit its report within a week.

Another tragedy waiting to happen

Residents are forced to run from pillar to post to get dead trees cut as such pleas fall on deaf ears of the Horticulture Department. Jatinder Thakur, a resident of Sector 21-D, had submitted an application on March 26 for removal of a dead tree outside his house. However, the department received nod a month ago, but Electricity Department officials expressed inability to shut down power for two hours in the peak summer season.

Termites root cause

The issue of termites eating into city trees has surfaced in the past, as it is one of the root causes of threatening their existence. Most roadside trees in the city are infested by termites. Weakened by infection, heavy branches often break during storms, posing a threat to commuters.

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