HC orders stricter rules to save trees in city
Observing that provisions of the Tree Act are grossly insufficient to respond to the complexities of current problems, the high court on Wednesday adjourned the PIL against felling of hundreds of trees by BBMP for road widening. A bench, headed by Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen, while hearing a batch of PILs, also extended the stay on felling of 35,000 trees for widening of NH-218 (Bijapur-Humnabad-Gulbarga).
While referring to Section 3 (2) of the Act, which provides for the Mayor, Deputy Conservator of Forests, Municipal Commissioner, etc., to form a Tree Authority as an appellate body, the bench observed, “This amounts to a person being a judge in his own case which is anathema in law”. The court also felt that “people must be made aware of felling of roadside trees by way of issuing public notices so that their objections are invited”.
According to the PIL by Environment Support Group against the Palike, the proposal to cut trees is predicated on the premise that it will result in improved flow of traffic and reduce congestion while no evidence has been presented to prove that the result of road widening will actually achieve these objectives. “The Tree Officer of the BBMP, a forest official deputed from the Forest Department and working from within the BBMP, is constrained from taking any objective decision, and there is rarely any reasoned order justifying such massive felling of trees,” argued the ESG.
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