The Madras High Court bench here has issued directions to the Ramanathapuram district administration not to cut trees along the Rameswaram-Madurai Highway. A division bench comprising Justices Chitra Venkataraman and S. Vimala passed the order, restraining the district administration from cutting the trees, after Babu Abdullah, the managing trustee of Syed Ammal trust, moved the court stating that trees along the Rameswaram-Madurai Highway, in Ramanathapuram Municipality were being cut to facilitate free flow of traffic.
The petitioner’s counsel Mahaboob Athiff contended that the trees were more than 50-years-old and they did not hinder the traffic.
The district administration argued that the trees obstructed the free flow of vehicular traffic in the highway and, hence, should be cut.
Based on the directions of the court, the special government pleader C. Selvaraj produced photographs of the highway and the trees.
The judges, after seeing the photographs, observed that the highway was wide and that the trees were seen at the extreme corners of the road.
“We do not find any of the branches of the trees lying low to obstruct the vehicular traffic”, the division bench noted while allowing the writ.
However, the bench said the branches of the trees could be pruned if they disturbed traffic.
