‘What will PILs against tree cutting for Metro-4 achieve?’

The Bombay high court (HC) has stressed the need for projects like the Metro-4 line to alleviate the problem of thousands of commuters travelling from Kalyan and

The Bombay high court (HC) has stressed the need for projects like the Metro-4 line to alleviate the problem of thousands of commuters travelling from Kalyan and Thane.

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The observation was made during the hearing of two public interest litigations (PILs) filed against felling of trees for the Metro-4 project and constitution of a tree authority by the Thane Municipal Corporation (TMC).

The division bench of justices SC Dharmadhikari and RI Chagla, while hearing the PILs filed by environmentalist Rohit Joshi and Thane Nagrik Pratishtan, was informed by senior counsels Gayatri Singh and Milind Sathe, that the tree officer of TMC permitted the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) to cut around 36 trees and transplant over 900 trees without following procedure.

Singh said that in the absence of any court orders specifically dealing with tree transplantation, there was a need for guidelines.

She further submitted that though the petition had been filed in May 2019, the MMRDA did not have the wherewithal to transplant the trees and the TMC has not identified the land where the trees would be transplanted.

TMC, however, refuted the claims. Counsel for the civic body pointed out that it is the only corporation that has acquired an imported tree transplantation machine and had allocated 56 hectare of land for transplantation of trees for the Metro project as well as for the city.

MMRDA also produced relevant documents issued to it by civic authorities to cut the trees.

The court observed that while the concerns of the petitioners are understandable, it asked “what would an order of stay achieve”.

“So long as the bona fides are clear and as there needs to be an alternative to the transport infrastructure, there is a need for the Metro project... thus reducing the pressure on Railways and road traffic,” observed the bench, adding that it would pass orders on the matter on December 17.