NMC told to file affidavit on excessive tree trimming on court premises

Nagpur: The Nagpur bench of Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) to file an affidavit regarding the excessive trimming of trees on the district and sessions court premises.
In a suo motu PIL (No 107/2018), amicus curiae Kalyani Deshpande submitted printouts of photographs widely circulated on social media after the trees were mercilessly chopped on a holiday.
The PIL was regarding the proposed felling of a big banyan tree at Ambazari T-point for which Kalyani Deshpande was appointed amicus curiae.
Even TOI had published a report quoting city lawyers who were outraged over ‘excessive’ trimming of trees on the district court premises which took place when the court was closed on account of Mahashivratri on Friday.
Quoting NMC garden superintendent Amol Chorpagar, TOI had reported that though permission had been sought from the civic body for trimming of trees, the contractor exceeded his brief and removed all branches.
“Permission was granted only for the trimming of trees. We will conduct an inquiry and take action accordingly,” Chorpagar had told TOI.
TOI had also quoted lawyer Prakash Jaiswal, who was part of the team which had planted these trees way back in 2009.
In the last hearing, the HC asked NMC to file an affidavit on steps taken to implement the government resolution dated March 23, 2006. The civic body was also directed to inform the court regarding the steps to be taken to preserve trees in the area near Ganesh Tekdi Mandir.
“Our attention was drawn to the December 10, 2014, communication by the director general of forests and special secretary of the ministry of environment, forests and climate change (MOEFCC) and forest policy division of government of Maharashtra to all principal chief conservators of forests (PCCFs). We wanted the PCCFs to file an affidavit on steps taken to implement the ‘One Student One Tree’ scheme by the intervener,” the judges said.
Sunil Mishra, former chairman of Nagpur University’s Mass Communication Board, had filed an intervention contending that due to concretizing of roads, any scope of tree plantation had virtually ended.
After facing flak from HC, the NMC cleared 3,672 trees with concrete around stems in phase I and II of the construction of cement roads. It planted around 11,201 trees in 2018-19 under the central government scheme. The civic body also removed 216 illegal hoardings, banners and posters fixed on trees in various zones in association with NGO Green Vigil Foundation.