The family of a man, who succumbed to head injuries on Wednesday at a private hospital in Purasawalkam, after a dead tree fell on him earlier this month, is planning to send a legal notice to the Chennai Corporation, asking for compensation.
The victim, 63-year-old Chelakarai Rama Venkatadri, was waiting to board a bus in front of the railway station in Perambur, when the incident occurred on August 7. Mr. Venkatadri’s wife, Meenakshi, who was with him, was also injured. The couple, who reside in Mylapore, had just returned from a pilgrimage to Tirumala Tirupati.
Mayor Saidai Duraisamy, told The Hindu that the civic body would consider the family’s plea. However, the quantum of compensation would be decided based on a report from the district collector, who was the authority when it came to allotting compensation to victims of accidents, he said.
Corporation officials said that the compensation would probably be around Rs. 2.5 lakh depending on several factors including the projected loss of the earnings of the victim and the number of dependents he had.
Mr. Venkatadri had been a commission agent for a few textile companies in Coimbatore as well as in Chennai. He died around 3.30 a.m. on Wednesday, after failing to respond to treatment for a serious head injury.
“We do not have children. I retired early to be with my husband but now I have lost him,” said 55-year-old Meenakshi. The family’s counsel, Sudha Ramalingam, a well known advocate, said that it was the negligence of the Corporation in not removing dead trees in public places that had led to the incident.
“In Chennai alone, more than 2 lakh dead trees have been found in open places posing a hazard to residents. Most of them are rain trees and copper pot trees that can live up to a century,” said D. Narasimhan, associate professor of the Centre for Floristic Research, Madras Christian College, who is leading a team conducting a tree census in the city.
