A five-member Bench of the National Green Tribunal, headed by Justice Swatantra Kumar, has accepted an appeal by Citizens For Green Doon and issued notices to the Uttarakhand Chief Secretary and Principal Chief Conservator of Forests regarding the axing of healthy trees on the grounds of being “dangerous”. This decision was taken on Wednesday.
According to the appeal filed by CFGD the provision for felling trees in the Tree Protection Act of Uttarakhand for being dangerous to life or property is being grossly misused and hundreds of healthy trees are felled under this pretext. The petition states that the number of “dangerous” trees felled in the last two years equals the total number of such trees felled in the preceding 10 years, which appears abnormal.
According to CFGD chief coordinator Nitin Pandey, the group has been pursuing the issue with top forest officers but while everyone agreed that the provision was being misused, no action was ever taken to prevent it.
“The Forest Research Institute had supplied to the group, under Right to Information Act, objective criterion under which trees could be labelled dangerous which were forwarded to the PCCF, but no action was taken and even today, trees are being axed on mere apprehension rather than after an objective assessment of the tree,” said Pandey while adding that the matter is scheduled to be heard on October 1.
According to information procured by the group under the RTI Act, in the past two years 1,626 trees were axed in Dehradun city after being labelled dangerous which is nearly double the 827 trees felled after being labelled dangerous from 2000 to 2010. This and related information secured from the Forest Department by the group under RTI Act points towards the misuse of the provision for axing trees which pose a danger to property or life.
Environmentalists in Dehradun have long been alleging that the authorities have found an easy excuse to allow tree felling. The process of identifying dangerous trees is subjective and most of the trees are felled wrongly. From last year, under public pressure, the department has started asking for photographs of dangerous trees along with applications for felling but a survey of such photos using the RTI Act showed that 95 per cent of such photos did not show anything which was dangerous. Permission for axing trees labelled dangerous has been granted on flimsy grounds like the branch of a tree touching the neighbouring building, leaves shed by a tree dropping in the neighbouring compound and affecting the relations of neighbours and birds on trees affecting crops, point out the activists.