HC clears tree felling for defence highway along India-Pakistan border

Talking note of the strategic and defence importance of a national highway serving an area of nearly 100 kilometres along the India-Pakistan International Border, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday modified its earlier order imposing a complete ban on tree cutting in Punjab to permit the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to proceed with the project.

The Bench of Chief Justice Sheel Nagu and Justice Sanjiv Berry made it clear that the modification in the order with regard to the project was subject to stringent environmental safeguards, including compensatory afforestation at 10 times the number of trees felled.

The Bench also made it clear during the course of hearing that its blanket ban order on tree felling will not be applicable to decaying trees required to be axed for preventing mishaps and injuries. These could be removed after taking permission from the competent authority. The ban would also not be applicable to poplar and eucalyptus tree plantation on private lands.

The permission came Advocate-General Maninderjit Singh Bedi told the court that the decaying trees posed danger and quoted July 2022 incident in which a student was killed and several injured after a tree collapsed inside the campus of a school in Chandigarh.

The court also gave the “competent authority” three weeks to decide the Bhakra Beas Management Board’s plea seeking permission to cut over 4,056 trees for an 18-megawatt solar power project on BBMB acquired land. The deadline came after Bedi assured the court that a decision would be taken within the stipulated period.  

At the onset, the court accepted NHAI’s plea seeking modification of its December 24, 2025, order, after being told that the Abohar-Fazilka Road—described as a defence road of national importance—had already received permissions from the Punjab government as well as the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, subject to compliance with prescribed conditions, including compensatory afforestation.

The Bench also took note of submission made by counsel for one of the parties Jatin Bansal regarding the extent of plantation required. He submitted that the state policy prescribed a minimum of five times plantation, while the forest assessment reports prepared by the divisional forest officer recommended 10 times compensatory afforestation.

Taking a note of the submissions, the Bench indicated that higher environmental standards were required to be adopted, where the policy provided a range. The court and made it clear that the project would be permitted only with ten-times afforestation as five times was the minimum.

The NHAI counsel responded by saying that highway project– described during the hearing as both greenfield and brownfield – involved diversion of over 63 hectares of forest land. “This is a national highway project… it services an area along the International Border between India and Pakistan,” the counsel told the court to underscore its defence relevance.

Allowing the application, the High Court permitted NHAI to proceed with construction and tree cutting subject to all conditions, including compensatory afforestation of ten times the trees cut. The Bench added additional land might have to be arranged if required to meet the ten-times plantation condition. The court, among other, was assisted in the matter by senior advocates Akshay Bhan and GK Mann.