Mangroves cut here, trees planted 400 kms away – Bombay High Court now draws line

The court said it would not permit compensatory afforestation at locations far from the affected area in future until the Maharashtra government complies with its earlier directions on creating land banks and a monitoring mechanism.

A recurring practice

On December 12, 2025, the Bombay High Court also permitted the felling of 45,675 mangroves for the Versova Bhayandar Coastal Road project, citing “demonstrably required public interest”. It accepted compensatory afforestation in Chandrapur, more than 800 km away, despite BEAG arguing that plantations should be undertaken closer to the project, “albeit in smaller proportions”, to offset the “adverse environmental impact of the project”.

In another case last month, the High Court noted that degraded forest lands, low-density “open forests” or scrublands, in the Dhule and Pimpalner forest ranges had been identified for compensatory afforestation for the felling of 208 mangrove trees for an eight lane access controlled highway connecting to the proposed Vadhavan greenfield port in Palghar.

For other Mumbai projects, non-mangrove compensatory afforestation has been proposed in Dhule, nearly 300 km away, for the Malvani Car Maintenance Yard and Metro Line 2A; Gadchiroli, nearly 900 km away, for the Malad sewage treatment plant; and Jalgaon, nearly 400 km away, for the coastal road from Amra Marg to the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link junction.

Why location matters

Former Supreme Court judge Justice Abhay S Oka, who served as Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court, said the principle behind compensatory afforestation was that the area losing its green cover should itself be compensated.

“The reason is that whenever you fell trees, the basic idea of compensatory afforestation is that the area should be compensated for the green cover it lost. So this is fundamental. In one of the cases, Karnataka HC noticed that for the trees felled in Bengaluru Urban District, compensatory afforestation was happening in Bengaluru Rural District. The Court came down very heavily on that.”

Justice Oka also questioned whether plantations at distant locations would necessarily survive and replicate the ecological benefits of the trees being destroyed.

Another approach

In 2019, the Bombay HC approved the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation’s proposal to plant 13,332 mangrove trees at Charkop for the Bandra Versova Sea Link, besides plantation at Manori and Gorai for two other projects.

It later directed Tata Power Company Limited to plant 5,000 mangrove saplings in Thane for the displacement of 477 mangroves. In 2022, it ordered 1,10,000 mangrove saplings to be planted in Palghar while permitting the felling of nearly 22,000 mangroves for the Mumbai Ahmedabad Bullet Train project.

In August 2024, it directed plantation of 7,823 mangroves in nearby Vasai for a Western Railway project. In September 2025, it ordered mangrove plantation at nearby Surai village for Metro Line 5 and stressed timely afforestation before mangrove felling.

Exceptional, not routine

The Bombay High Court’s 2018 mangrove judgment, passed by a bench headed by Justice Oka, had frozen the destruction of mangroves in Maharashtra without court approval and held mangroves to be reserve forest.

Justice Oka said the verdict required High Court approval in addition to permissions under Section 2 of the Forest (Conservation) Act before mangroves could be felled, “so that court can grant permission in only exceptional cases”.