The Jharkhand High Court on Wednesday stressed on formulating guidelines for the contractors regarding felling of trees during construction and widening of roads in the State. The division bench of Chief Justice Virender Singh and Justice S Chandrasekhar was hearing a PIl initiated suo motu on trees being cut haphazardly to widen roads across the State, on Wednesday. The court observed that State's ecological balance would be disturbed if the felling went on unchecked.
“It is a sin to cut these trees…..you are intentionally killing these living beings…you are killing someone….We will not let you cut these trees intentionally. There must be some guideline which should be given to these contractors along with the contract so that they do not make such mistakes of haphazardly cutting the trees without replacing them with new ones,” said the Chief Justice.
The court also asked both the State Government and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to tell whether there was any defined guideline related to the felling of trees during the construction or widening of roads.
Amicus Curie appointed for the PIl, Advocate Dilip Jerath, has been asked to prepare a note on the report of the Indian Road Congress and Forest Department Rules prepared on the basis of the rulings of the Supreme Court. The NHAI and the State Government too have been asked to submit affidavits again depicting the guidelines given in the Indian Road Congress and Forest Department Rules, respectively.
The court also asked the NHAI that what it will do in case a tree is coming on the roadIJ They will cut it or save itIJ NHAI replied that any tree coming within one meter of the flank beside roads will be mowed down.
The court was annoyed over wrong submission made in the court that the tree-translocators were about to arrive here in Jharkhand. “Even orders could not be placed in the last 13 months and we were told that the machines would be arriving within a day or two,” observed the Chief Justice.
Meanwhile, the Department of Forest, Environment and Climate Change has initiated a process to hire and also purchase the machines to be used in the State for various State and National Highway projects besides, other infrastructural activities taking place.