JOIN USBengaluru metro gets HC permission to axe or translocate 91 trees
Namma Metro has received the high court's permission to fell and translocate dozens of trees for the Gottigere-Nagavara line. But it can do so only after submitting a compensatory plantation plan to a tree officer.
On Thursday, a division bench headed by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka permitted the BMRCL to translocate 52 trees and remove another 39 as stipulated in the office memorandum signed by the tree officer and the deputy conservator of forest.
The court also directed that 28 trees shall be retained at the site without causing them any damage. The authorities didn't seek any permission to fell or translocate these trees.
The court accepted an affidavit filed by the BMRCL that it will take care of the trees for 36 months as per the contract.
The court is hearing a PIL petition filed by Bangalore Environment Trust and Dattatraya T Devare, an environmentalist, who have sought forming a committee or task force to oversee the functioning of tree officers and the tree authority.
"After the period of 36 months (contractual period of maintenance) expires, the tree officer shall immediately visit the translocated trees (total 52). After assessing the condition of the translocated trees, if the tree officer is of the view that it is necessary to take care of some of them, he shall in writing communicate the same to BMRCL,” the court said.
It will be the tree officer's duty to frequently visit the place where the trees will be translocated to ascertain whether the agency appointed by the BMRCL is taking care of them, the court stated.