The Times of India           19.03.2014

National Green Tribunal seeks municipal corporation’s say on tree-cutting norms

PUNE:
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday asked the Pune Municipal
Corporation (PMC) to file an affidavit confirming that it had complied
with all the norms before cutting down trees for a road-widening project
in the city.

“The tribunal has asked the PMC to file a
compliance affidavit. We will ask the road department of the PMC to do
so,” said Mohan Dhere, tree officer of the PMC.

The NGT is
hearing a petition that claims that the civic body has allowed illegal
felling of trees and is in contempt of the ruling passed by the Bombay
high court in September 2013 that specifies the procedure to be followed
before trees are cut. It has particularly raised the case of felling of
trees along a 3.5-km stretch of road between Ghorpadi and Mundhwa in
December 2013.

However, the legal counsel for the PMC has
claimed that permissions for cutting the 77 trees and transplant 70
others had already been obtained from the Bombay High Court. The civic
body has also claimed that it has planted 200 trees to compensate for
the loss of greenery.