NGT orders NHAI to pay Rs 11 crore as tree felling compensation
Pune: NGT committee inspects proposed underpass on Khed-Sinnar stretch, hearing to be held today
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has ordered that the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) should deposit Rs 10 crore 90 lakhs with the Department of Social Forestry as compensation for felling of trees in Khed, Ambegaon and Junnar talukas for the quadrupling of Khed to Sinnar National Highway.
The order also said that after collecting the compensation amount, the Social Forestry Department should plant trees on both sides of the highway.
Ganesh Borhade, a social activist from Sangamner, had filed a petition with the NGT in 2020. During the expansion of the Khed to Sinnar National Highway, the authority cut more than two thousand trees on the Khed to Sinnar route during 2014. While it was expected to plant new trees in exchange for these trees, it was not implemented by the authority till 2019. Borhade had demanded in the petition that the authority should plant trees. NGT Pune bench Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh and member Dr Vijay Kulkarni gave the decision in the recent hearing in this case. Advocate Rahul Chaudhary appeared on behalf of Borhade.
Ganesh Borhade said that the authority was expected to plant five times the trees like pimpal (peepa), (Banyan) wad, bor, acacia, shisav, raiwal, badam etc, which were cut down. But implementation did not happen. In the earlier hearing, the NGT had appointed a three-member expert committee. They clarified that the tree plantation has not been done and suggested some options for tree plantation from the report. The NGT has asked the National Highway Authority to deposit Rs 10 crore 90 lakhs with the Social Forestry Department. Interest will be applied if there is delay in depositing the amount within the given time, said the order.
Borhade further said that the NGT order has given justice to the trees that were felled nine years ago. Social forestry has been entrusted with the responsibility of nurturing and conserving the trees for five years. The authority is expected to fund Rs 10 crore 90 lakh for Pune district, Rs 8 crore 96 lakh for Nagar district (Sangamner) and Rs 3 crore 54 lakh for Nashik district.
