Green court directs Border Roads Organisation to plant 10,000 trees in Uttarakhand

The National Green Tribunal has directed the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to plant at least 10,000 trees within a month in Uttarakhand as part of compensatory tree plantation to make up for hundreds of trees felled during construction of a road from Simli to Gwaldam.

The NGT’s principal bench of Justice Prakash Shrivastava was hearing a petition that complained about the BRO violating environmental norms during the construction of a road in the already fragile and sensitive mountains of Chamoli district of Uttarakhand.

The NGT in September 2022 had formed a joint committee comprising the representatives of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), BRO, Uttarakhand State Pollution Control Board (PCB) along with the District Magistrate and Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Chamoli who have been directed to “verify the factual position and take appropriate remedial action in the violation of environmental norms”.

No illegal felling

According to the joint committee’s report, the BRO did not illegally cut trees during the construction, the bench noted. There was, however, no clarity in the report about the number of trees planted.

The report said that there had been 17 landslides on the road from Simli to Gwaldam. The green court noted that a joint mechanism needed to be developed between the BRO and forest department to monitor landslides, assessing damage to vegetation and treating sites with appropriate measures.

“We are of the opinion that compensatory tree plantation must be carried out by the BRO to make up for trees felled during construction of the road and appropriate measures are also required to prevent landslides/washouts,” the bench said while directing the BRO to plant at least 10,000 trees in coordination with the concerned DFO within one month.

The DFO Chamoli was directed to monitor survival of the plantation for three months and report to the NGT.

The court added that the DFO will also ensure that at least a part of the plantation is done in a manner which will prevent landslides and the District Magistrate will ensure that the BRO takes appropriate steps to prevent landslides by constructing protective structures and will submit a report on the number of landslides during the intervening period and action taken to prevent it.