Can Delhi afford to cut down so many trees for housing project, HC asks NBCC

During the hearing, a vacation bench of Justice Vinod Goel and Justice Rekha Palli asked, “Can Delhi today afford cutting down of so many trees for a housing complex? You know the effect it would have. We could understand if it was a road-widening work, which is inevitable.”

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As per court records, the project has been underway for the past four-five months, while environment clearances (ECs) were given in 2017-18. Initially, the High Court asked NBCC to “stay its hands” till July 2, when a similar issue would be heard by the National Green Tribunal. It also asked the petitioner to approach the NGT.

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The court made the observation after the NBCC said the Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear pleas challenging ECs granted to any project by the Centre. However, the petitioner’s lawyer told the bench that the decision by the Delhi government to permit felling of trees in November cannot be challenged in the NGT.

Thereafter, the court gave the petitioner time till July 4 to amend his plea and challenge the decision in the High Court. As per the petition, the six south Delhi colonies where the trees would be felled are Sarojini Nagar, Nauroji Nagar, Netaji Nagar, Mohammadpur, Kasturba Nagar and Thyagaraja Nagar.

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The petition has claimed that planting saplings in another location as compensatory afforestation would not reduce the burden which would be put on the environment due to large-scale felling of trees, apart from being a “poor substitute” for fully grown trees.