Illegal tree felling in Delhi: NGT issues notice to environment ministry

The National Green Tribunal has issued notice to the Centre regarding the alleged felling of scores of trees in the national capital.

The green body was hearing about the alleged illegal felling of thousands of trees at Chajju Ram Bagh in Jindpur by a private builder to construct a warehouse and commercial godown.

In an order dated December 9, a bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava noted that the district magistrate of north Delhi did not file his reply, as per the tribunal's earlier order to produce the relevant khasra entries and revenue record of Chajju Ram Bagh of last 20 years to ascertain the correct position.

The bench also comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel noted that the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) filed a compliance report enclosing an order where the forest officials concerned had imposed a compounding fee of Rs nine lakh for illegal felling of 15 trees.

"It cannot be ascertained under what circumstances compounding was permitted and what were the criteria adopted and facts considered while calculating the compounding fee," the tribunal said.

It said the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) had filed a reply enclosing a copy of Environment Clearance (EC) dated July 14, 2020, issued by the Union Ministry of Environment Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to the project, according to which tree cutting had been proposed for the construction project.

The tribunal said that counting of existing trees had to be done in the area as per the EC conditions.

It said, "Counsel for DDA has submitted that some representative of MoEFCC must have done tree counting. Hence, we implead the MoEFCC, through its secretary as additional respondent."  Issuing notice to the MoEFCC, the tribunal sought a reply about "the issue concerning the tree counting and illegal felling of trees and action, if any, proposed for violating the EC conditions."  The matter has been posted on April 1 for further proceedings.