Doon Expressway: SC stays felling of 11,000 tress till November 26

The Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed felling of around 11,000 trees and plants on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road (NH-72A) stretch, part of the Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor until November 26 and also asked National Green Tribunal (NGT) to decide the plea against forest clearances granted to the Expressway.

A Bench of Justices DY Chandrachud, Surya Kant, and Vikram Nath set aside the October 6 order of NGT and asked it to consider afresh a plea of NGO 'Citizens for Green Doon' which has challenged the Stage-1 and Stage-2 Clearances and tree felling permissions.

It asked the NGT to pass a reasoned order on each of the averments made by the NGO and asked it to list the matter within 24 hours of filing the plea. The NGO was granted liberty to move the NGT within a week.

The new six-lane Delhi-Dehradun Economic Corridor Expressway will reduce the travel time from 6.5 hours to just 2.5 hours as per the plan of the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) and would have a 12-kilometre elevated road to protect the wildlife and forests.

The apex court said that the NGT's order of dismissing the plea of the NGO is in error as it did not consider the earlier judgements on the issue.

The Central government has contended that the project should not have stayed in the public interest as all necessary clearances were taken by the NHAI.

The NGO said that they have filed an RTI before the Divisional Forest Officer of Saharanpur seeking to know whether an order for tree felling has been passed, which was categorically denied.

It stated that mitigation steps which the Centre is talking about for the protection of flora and fauna are not implemented and would destroy the forests and endanger the wildlife in the area.

The apex court on November 11 had directed the Centre that there should not be any tree felling on the Ganeshpur-Dehradun Road till November 16.