SC allows felling of trees for road project near Aarey
The top court bench, also comprising justice K Vinod Chandran, was hearing a BMC plea that sought nod to fell 95 trees for the Goregaon-Mulund Link Road (GMLR) project in the Film City region, located close to the Aarey forest belt. The BMC filed the plea keeping in mind the January 10 order of the top court that prohibited its tree authority from felling any more trees in Mumbai's Aarey colony without its permission.
Hearing the matter on Tuesday, the court underscored the need for protection of the environment, but stressed that sustainable development was equally necessary. 'No doubt protection of environment is important, at the same time necessity for carrying out development activities cannot be ignored... If a country has to progress, development of infrastructure is also necessary. Unless proper infrastructure is put in place, country cannot progress,' it said.
While the bench allowed felling of trees in this case, it added: 'In carrying out the development least damage should be caused to the environment... We are inclined to permit the Tree Authority to proceed further with the request of the project proponent. We clarify that no trees shall be actually felled without permission of this court.'
The authority, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, said some 1,000 trees are to be cut as part of the road project, and initially only 95 have to be felled. When the bench asked whether any expert agency had examined the need for this exercise, Rohatgi cited an IIT-Bombay report. The bench then asked the BMC to file the report by August 8 alongside an afforestation plan. The matter has now been posted for August 12.
The BMC's plea was opposed by activists, represented by senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who flagged that nearly 4,000 trees have been chopped in Aarey forests without any plans for afforestation yet.
The court then said, 'In a city like Mumbai, there will be 10 projects going on simultaneously. But can we object to the underpass road being constructed?'
CJI Gavai, who is from Maharashtra, also cited the example of Atal Setu, saying that the project involved felling of several trees but has indeed made travelling across Mumbai easier and faster. 'We are all for protecting the environment but sustainable development is also necessary. We have to be also concerned about the millions of citizens who will benefit from this,' the bench remarked.
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