2 min readMumbaiUpdated: May 18, 2026 10:15 AM IST
Five days after celebrating her 15th birthday in a hospital bed, Aarika Srivastava, a Class 10 student, who dreamed of becoming an engineer, succumbed to injuries suffered in the Khar tree collapse incident after battling for life for a week at Hinduja Hospital.
A resident of Malad East, Aarika had recently completed Class 9 and had already begun preparing for the future. According to her family, she had enrolled for IIT-JEE coaching classes at the Narayana centre and was preparing to begin Class 10.
“Aarika recently completed her ninth grade and was preparing to start tenth grade classes. On May 15, she turned fifteen while she was admitted at the hospital,” her uncle, S K Srivastava, told The Indian Express.
The tragedy unfolded on May 10, when Aarika and her elder sister Manasvi Srivastava had gone to Bandra to meet their friend Harshita Kumar. After spending time together at Harshita’s home, the three decided to head out for lunch in Khar.
It was on their way to lunch that a tree from a compound of an under-construction building collapsed onto their autorickshaw near Rajkumar Jewellers along Linking Road.
While Manasvi suffered a fractured leg, Aarika and Harshita sustained severe head trauma, including skull fractures, and lost consciousness. The autorickshaw driver rushed them to Hinduja Hospital, where Aarika and Harshita spent the last week in the ICU fighting for their lives.
