SC asks UP govt: Why not make zigzag roads instead of cutting trees?

Supreme-Court-oF-IndiaSupreme-Court-oF-India

Anushka Mansharamani

The Supreme Court of India, while hearing a plea by the Uttar Pradesh government on the cutting of 2940 trees for the construction of the Krishna Govardhan Road project in Mathura, asked as to why the roads were supposed to be aligned in a straight line and proposed that instead there should be zigzag roads as this would be beneficial.

According to Sharad Arvind Bobde, the Chief justice of India, zigzag roads would be more beneficial as zigzag roads would directly reduce the speed of vehicles, and that would thereby decrease road accidents.

He further asked the State government to examine the importance of trees by weighing the value of oxygen supply the tree could exhale in its lifetime.

He also stated that the valuation of the trees should not be done in terms of timber as that would not be beneficial considering the time it would be cut in.

The Supreme Court observed that although the Public Works Department (PWD) has guaranteed that the compensation of the cutting of the trees would be done by planting similar tress in another area, the Court was not satisfied as replacing 90 to 100-year-old trees to grow a week-old sapling did not make sense.

Therefore, the Supreme Court of India did not accept the regrowing of trees form of compensation and stated that as there is no clear statement from the Yogi Adityanath government or the PWD, the Court is not satisfied.

Moreover, the Court observed that the only effect of the cutting of the trees is the straight alignment of roads, and as mentioned earlier, zigzag roads would be more beneficial as per the Court’s view.

A proposal was made by Advocate ADN Rao, in good faith, to bring to the notice of the Supreme Court that there was a method for proper evaluation of the trees, called the “Net Present Value.”

The Court has asked the government to ponder over the NPV method and respond to the same within two weeks and has further posted the matter for the hearing after four weeks.

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