MUMBAI, July 5 -- Nine years ago, Kanchan Nath, 58, was returning home from yoga class around 8am, when a coconut tree at Swastik Park in Chembur toppled onto her head. A Doordarshan anchor, Kanchan fell unconscious and was rushed to a local hospital. Doctors tried to revive her for two days but, on July 20, 2007, she succumbed to her injuries. "Before she died, life was good," says her husband Rajat. "Her death upended our entire family." Kanchan, who taught yoga and was well-liked in the neighbourhood, was to fly to Bengaluru the next day to visit her daughter, who was expecting her second child. Their son Rajarshi had just started his career as an advertising filmmaker and Rajat, who was taking music classes and enjoying retired life. Then, suddenly, Kanchan was gone. Rajat petitioned the Bombay High Court for compensation, pointing to the BMC's alleged negligence as the cause of his wife's death. He even submitted documents showing that permissions were being sought to axe the leaning coconut tree, along with weather reports that there was no rain or wind on the day of the tree collapse. He also alleged that the owners of the property where the coconut tree stood had repeatedly sought permission to cut it but the BMC had ignored their requests. "Our petition was foolproof. However, our case rarely came up for hearing and, on one occasion, the judge recused himself," recalls Rajat, who withdrew the case in October 2017. "You cannot place a price on a person. Compensation is just token acknowledgment and it was denied for my wife," he says. It distresses Rajat that lives continue to be endangered by tree collapses. "There have been no lessons learnt. Professional tree inspections must be carried out to identify and cut trees that pose a danger, while saplings must be planted to replace them. A tree audit is the need of the hour," he says....