NGT Directs Border Roads Organisation To Plant 10,000 Trees In Uttarakhand

The principal bench of National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed Border Roads Organization (BRO) to plant 10,000 trees in Uttrakhand for trees felled for construction of road from Simli to Gwaldam.

The Tribunal opined that compensatory tree plantation is required to be done by the BRO as against the number of trees which have fallen in the construction of the road and appropriate measures are also required to be taken to prevent the landslides/washouts which have been occurred in the relevant stretch.

“BRO will take appropriate steps for the plantation of at least ten thousand trees (10,000) in coordination with the concerned DFO within one month from today,” directed the bench of Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava, Justice S.K. Singh, Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi and Dr. A. Senthil Vel.

These directions came in response to the plea alleging violation of environmental norms by BRO while constructing the road from Simli to Gwaldam in a strategically sensitive and ecologically fragile area.

It was alleged that illegal cutting of trees and dumping of muck by them at several places and damage to the environment leading to drying up of water resources was made. It was further alleged that muck disposal in river had narrowed down the width of river and blasting in the hills carried out by the contractor was in violation of the norms resulting into landslides.

The Tribunal noted that according to joint Committee Report against 4047 number of trees permitted to be felled in the forest area, number of trees actually felled in the forest area were 3814 and number of trees actually felled in the revenue/private area were 435.

“No clear details of the number of tree plantation done have been disclosed in the report,” observed the bench.

Consequently, the bench directed the BRO to plant 10,000 trees and said the DFO will monitor the survival of the plantation for three months thereafter and will furnish a report before the Registrar General of the Tribunal in respect of the tree plantation and their survival rate.

It also directed that the DFO will also ensure that at least a part of the plantation is done in such a manner which will prevent the landslide.

For prevention of landslides, it further directed that the concerned District Magistrate will ensure that the BRO takes appropriate steps for preventing the landslides by constructing the protective structures and will submit the report in respect of number of incidents of landslides during the intervening period and the action taken to prevent it.

Case Title: Subhash Mishra & Ors. v. State of Uttarakhand