Munmun Kaur
Published On: December 24, 2021 at 11:11 IST
The Karnataka High Court on December 23, gave a green flag to Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) to fell 577 trees along the Nagawara-Gottigere alignment for the Bengaluru Metro Rail project.
A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Sachin Shankar Magadum passed the interim Order while allowing the application based on the report submitted by the Technical Expert Committee (TEC). As per the November 18 expert committee report, of 833 trees examined, 44 were recommended to be retained and 212 for translocation.
The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by the Bangalore Environment Trust and one Dattatraya T Devare, an environmentalist, who argued that the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of November 2019 proposed the number of trees to be cut as 1,218 but in the subsequent three memoranda, the number of trees affected was increased to 2,115. Another contention raised was that neither the BMRCL nor the TEC gave an explanation of this huge difference in the number of trees to be felled.
On the other hand, Senior Counsel Uday Holla, representing BMRCL submitted that the DPR was made way before in 2016. Since then, the girth of several smaller plants has expanded making them fall under the classification of trees. He further submitted that BMRC is facing a huge amount of losses for the want of clearance in cutting trees.
The Bench observed that there can be some variation in the number of trees to be affected as DPR was prepared in 2016 and said, “We are of the considered view that the report of the expert committee constituted by the Orders of this Court shall be accepted simply because there is some variation in the number of trees mentioned in the DPR and the report does not mean that the TEC has not properly carried out the work as per the process elucidated in the Court’s December 9, 2020 Order.”
The PIL filed in 2018,sought for a committee to be formed to ensure that the tree officers and the tree authority carry out their duties in accordance with the provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976, and the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Rules, 1977.
