Supreme Court Issues Notice to Delhi Tree Board and its Officers

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice to the Tree Authority and Tree Officers appointed under the Delhi Trees Protection Act, 1994, to restrain the Delhi government from allowing felling of trees under the Act without prior permission from the court.

a bench Justice Abhay Oka and Justice Augustine George Masih He was listening to the call, which also called for the formation of an expert committee to evaluate existing tree protection measures in Delhi and provide recommendations for conservation of existing trees and forests.

During the trial, Judge Abhay Oka said: “We want to listen to the tree officer and the tree officer, what procedure do they follow? What kind of checks and balances are there in the procedure they follow regarding logging? And then we suggest ordering some.” He added: “Some mechanisms will need to be developed; otherwise the powers are exercised indiscriminately.”

Senior Advocate Gopal SankarnarayananThe applicant, who was present with the applicant, presented the statistics to the court and stated: “5 trees are cut down every hour in Delhi.”

Judge Oka replied: “We think that if an application is for cutting down more than a certain number of trees, then some precautions should be taken. The aim of the law is primarily to protect trees, and cutting them may be allowed in exceptional cases..”

Referring to the Delhi Protection of Trees Act, Sankarnarayanan explained that the Act outlines many functions for the Tree Authority and Tree Officer, including detailed surveillance of trees.

According to an affidavit filed by MCD in April 2024, Sankarnarayanan noted that there are currently 198,000 trees in Delhi. He pointed out that approximately 80 thousand trees were cut down from 2019 to 2021. He argued that, given the requirement for compensatory afforestation at a ratio of 1:10, 800,000 trees should be planted; but only 200,000 trees were found in the MCD census.

Sankarnarayanan noted the “pathetic” track record of tree wardens in protecting trees in the last seven years. He stated: “What happened in the last 7 years is deplorable and inexcusable. None of the tasks they were supposed to perform were fulfilled. None, not one, not one.Among the duties neglected by the officers are to count trees, carry out compensatory afforestation, follow up these activities, submit status reports, etc. stated that it was located.

He emphasized that Deputy Conservators of Forests, who are members of the Tree Authority, were appointed only after the Delhi High Court, in a 1994 order, directed the establishment of a Forest Department for Delhi.

The court issued notice to the Tree Board and the Tree Officers appointed under the Delhi Protection of Trees Act, 1994. The notification has been directed to be issued through the Principal Secretary, Department of Forests and Environment, Government of Delhi and the notification may be sent back in November. 22. The Court also allowed notice to be served on the lawyer representing the Delhi government in the main writ petition.

Case no. – WP (C) No. 4677/1985

Case Title – MC Mehta v. Union of India and Ors.