NGT panel seeks report on tree felling in Gurugram

Advertisement

Gurugram, January 19

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has formed a committee on the alleged illegal axing of trees at a forest area in Gurugram by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) and asked for a report.

The green panel was hearing a petition, alleging that the NHAI while constructing the National Highway 148NA (DND-Faridabad Ballabgarh bypass to KMP interchange stretch of Delhi-Vadodara-Mumbai expressway) covered a pond and also axed trees.

While the pond at Kiranj village in the district was notified under the Haryana Pond Waste Water Management Authority Act, the forest area at Hazipur village was within the ambit of the social forestry scheme of the Forest Department, the petition claimed.

An NGT Bench, comprising judicial member Justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member A Senthil Vel, has observed that a “substantial question” pertaining to the environment has arisen. Before taking any action in the matter, we find it appropriate to obtain a factual report from the authorities concerned, for which we constitute a joint committee, comprising the State Pollution Control Board, Principal Chief Conservator of Forests, Gurugram, and District Magistrate, Gurugram, the Bench said.

It said the joint committee would visit the site, collect information and submit a report along with an action-taken report within two months. “The District Magistrate, Gurugram, will be the nodal agency for coordination and compliance,” the Bench said.

The matter has been posted for further proceedings on March 17. The petition sought action against the NHAI for violating the Forest (Conservation) Act, besides directions for stopping the construction of the road raised on the pond and restoring the pond to its original shape.

NHAI under lens

• The NHAI while constructing a road on the NH 148-NA has covered a pond and axed trees
• The pond at Kiranj village was notified under the Haryana Pond Waste Water Management Authority Act