The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday permitted Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited to cut around 350 trees for the metro project and directed the corporation to plant 4,000 saplings as compensatory afforestation in the Old Military Dairy Farm at Hebbal instead of 3,500 saplings as proposed by the corporation.
However, the court described as “vague” the proposal of planting 3,500 saplings of 33 different varieties of species as the BMRCL, in its proposal to the Tree Officer (TO), had not indicated how many saplings in each of the identified species would be planted.
Also, the court recorded its disapproval on the conduct of the TO for not ascertaining from the BMRCL the number of sapling in each of the shortlisted varieties as this information would have helped the TO in considering whether the site is suitable for growth of saplings.
A Division Bench, comprising Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice Suraj Govindaraj, passed the order during the hearing of a PIL petition filed in 2018 by Dattatraya T. Devare and the Bangalore Environment Trust complaining about the non-implementation of the provisions of the Karnataka Preservation of Trees Act, 1976 in the city.
As BMRCL had pointed out that implementation of the metro project is being delayed, the Bench permitted the felling of trees as BMRCL agreed to the court’s suggestion to plant 4,000 saplings.
Meanwhile, the Bench directed the TO to indicate the number of saplings to be planted in each of the shortlisted varieties and to follow this norm in future.
