Mumbai: Bombay High Court refuses to lift ban on tree-cutting for metro rail

Source:- intoday.in

The construction work for Mumbai metro rail project faces another hurdle as the Bombay High Court has refused to allow cutting of trees. The high court extended the stay on tree-cutting for another two weeks.

The Bombay High Court today refused to lift its stay on cutting of trees for the metro rail project in Mumbai.

The high court extended the ban on tree-cutting for another two weeks even the counsel appearing for the MMRDA (Mumbai Metro Region Development Authority) telling it that alternate alignments for saving trees was not possible.

MUMBAI METRO RAIL: 10 THINGS TO KNOW

1. The bench of Bombay High Court is hearing various petitions that have been filed by various individuals concerning the chopping of approximately 50,000 trees in Mumbai for the construction of metro rail projects.
2. MMRDA counsel Kiran Bagari said, “Six years research has gone into deciding the alignment of metro route. The cutting of trees is done only because it is needed for infrastructure.”
3. Bombay High Court Chief Justice Manjula Chellur told the MMRDA counsel that “some loss to the environment will happen for infrastructure development. We understand that but the difference that we have to establish is if it is massacre or just a small obstacle.”
4. Jitendra Pardeshi, a forest official, has filed an affidavit saying that the MMRDA was directed to transplant most of the trees while only a few, which could not be transplanted, were to be cut.
5. Commenting on the approach of the forest officials, senior lawyer Janak Dwarkadas, appearing for one of the petitioners from South Mumbai told the court, “To use the word callous (for the officials) would be an understatement. The tree authority has abdicated its responsibility.”
6. The petitioners have been allowed by the Bombay High Court to inspect documents concerning the procedure for deciding the number of trees that are required to be cut under the BMC as well as at the MMRDA.
7. During the hearing, Justice Chellur said that if the trees were “massacred and the environment destroyed then we will have to look for another planet. We are only destroying ourselves. What we are today is because of our own actions.”
8. While one of the petitioners mentioned about a survey which showed that at Mohammed Ali Road there was only one tree in a three-kilometre raidus, Justice Chellur responded by saying, “We need to put a security guard for that tree.”
9. Justice Chellur added, “Sometimes I think that if I go somewhere and come back to Mumbai after 20 years. When the aeroplane comes down for landing then probably what I will see is just concrete jungle, not an inch of greenery around. This is what is happening in Bengaluru as well.”
10. The matter will come up for hearing in the Bombay High Court after two weeks.