KRDCL claims it didn't fell any tree for own road project

Petitions say the KRDCL has projected the work as an amalgamation of the existing major district roads, state highways and national highways

A claim by the KRDCL that it didn’t fell any tree for its extensive road project in Bengaluru has prompted the high court to order the state government to find the real culprits.

A division bench led by Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka has directed the government to hold an enquiry to identify the people or authorities responsible for the felling of trees in the road infrastructure project undertaken by the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL).

NGOs Voice of Sarjapur, Jhatkaa.org and an individual named Rajani Santosh have filed a PIL petition stating that the KRDCL’s 155.2-km-long ‘Bengaluru Surrounding Road Project’ doesn’t have the statutory clearances.

They say the KRDCL has projected the work as an amalgamation of the existing major district roads, state highways and national highways. The project includes the construction of new railway overbridges, railway underbridges, grade separators and an elevated corridor, essentially making it a new state highway project under the law. But the KRDCL has arbitrarily split the project into 10 singular components in order to circumvent the law, the petitioners argue.

That’s not all. The project has been taken up without the prior clearance under the Environmental Impact Assessment Notification, 2006, the forest clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and the prior recommendation of the Standing Committee of National Board for Wildlife, as required under the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, the petitioners contend. Photographs annexed to the petition purportedly show that trees have been felled at the project site. At the previous hearings, the court had directed the KRDCL to file objections to the petition. In response, the corporation said that it didn’t fell any tree.

“As the first respondent (KRDCL) claims that it has not indulged in felling of trees, the state government must hold an enquiry and inform the court and ascertain the names of persons or authorities responsible for felling of trees,” the court said and posted the matter to June 7 for further hearing.