Pune: Compound Wall Collapse in Dhankawdi Narrowly Misses Tragedy; Three Children Escape Unhurt
Dhankawdi, 21st May 2025: Three children, including a six-year-old girl, had a miraculous escape after a section of a compound wall collapsed onto their tin-sheet dwelling in Pune’s Dhankawdi area on Tuesday evening. The incident occurred around 5 pm during a spell of intense rain, when loose boulders and debris from a nearby residential society’s boundary wall broke through their modest home and landed directly on the bed they had been resting on just moments before.
The wall, located in a hilly section of the locality, had long been flagged as a structural hazard. Despite repeated appeals by local residents to the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) and the adjoining housing society, no preventive action was taken.
“We had warned both the PMC and the society several times last year, asking for repairs to the wall. It was visibly unstable,” said Sonali Kale, a resident whose family lives in the row of temporary tin shelters built near the base of the wall. “Nobody listened. Now we’re lucky lives weren’t lost.”
At least 15 families—primarily roadside vegetable vendors—reside in these makeshift homes, all located dangerously close to the crumbling structure.
Harshad Khandhare, the father of the children, expressed shock and frustration. “It’s a miracle that our kids are alive. But who will take responsibility if something worse happens next time? We need our homes to be safe, and we demand compensation for the damages,” he told reporters at the site.
Local civic officials visited the area shortly after the incident. Timayya Jagale, PMC’s ward officer for Dhankawdi and Sahakarnagar, confirmed that a team from the ward office and the building permission department had inspected the scene. “Further action will be based on their report,” he said.
