HC junks plea against 9km riverfront development stretch after PMC word on maintaining compensatory plantations
The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) submitted that it had planted 7,469 trees till July 11 against phase-wise permissions granted between Oct 14, 2024, and Feb 24, 2025, by the PMC Tree Authority to cut 1,302 trees and replant 1,843 trees. The civic body also said it would ensure that these trees were maintained properly.
The bench of Chief Justice Alok Aradhe and Justice Sandeep V Marne said on July 11, "Needless to state that in case any further proposal is made to the Tree Authority for cutting of trees for the purposes of the project in question, petitioners shall be at liberty to raise an objection, if so advised."
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Lawyer Abhijit Kulkarni, who represented the PMC, told TOI, "We brought to the court's notice that we have followed all the legal procedures. The PIL was filed in March this year as an afterthought against the permissions granted much earlier, only to stall the ambitious RFD project. It has an environmental clearance from the central govt's environment ministry."
"As early as in April this year, we filed an affidavit-in-reply, bringing to the HC's notice that 60% of the project work had been completed as per permissions granted.
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Hence, the PIL was an indirect way of blocking the project. This was the fourth attempt to stall the project in the name of environmental concerns," he said.
Activist Shalvi Pawar and others had filed the PIL assailing the validity of Resolution No. 1/14/ permission passed by the chairman of the Pune Municipal Corporation's Tree Authority on Oct 14, 2024, on the ground that the same was in violation of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975.
The petitioners pleaded directions to quash and set aside the approvals given on Dec 6, 2024, Dec 10, 2024 and Dec 11, 2024, by the assistant municipal commissioner, PMC, and to restrain the chairman, Tree Authority, from felling and replantation of trees for the RFD project.
The PMC stated in its affidavit on April 27, 2025, "The permission to cut trees for River Rejuvenation Project has been considered by the PMC in phase wise manner.
As of date, six permissions have been granted by the Tree Authority to cut a total of 1,302 trees and transplant 1,843 trees along around 9km length of the Mula-Mutha. Out of the said permissions, cutting of 997 trees and transplantation of 859 have been completed, and further work is in progress.
Simultaneously, along with the cutting and/or transplantation of trees, the execution of the River Rejuvenation Project is also going on at the site."
The PMC lawyer submitted on July 11 that the remaining trees had also been cut /transplanted after April 27, 2025, and the phase concerned of project had been executed.
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