Supreme Court takes cognizance of NGO letter on harvesting
The letter was sent by the Swachh Association to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, complaining about the very wrong reporting to his own office regarding the felling of all trees in Ajni Van and other projects.
Nagpur: The SC (Supreme Court) while highlighting the enormous damage to the environment due to several development projects including the proposed Inter Model Station (IMS) at Ajni Van Self cognizance has been taken on 1 letter sent by the NGO of the city.
The letter was sent by the Swachh Association to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, complaining about the very wrong reporting to his own office regarding the felling of all trees in Ajni Van and other projects. Advocate M Anil Kumar, who has filed 1 Public Interest Litigation (PIL) on the issue in Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court, has stated that 1 copy was sent to NV Ramana, India Chief Justice, and others.
Simultaneously, volunteers of the NGO – Krunal Mourya, Wasudev Mishra, Joseph George, and Anusaya Kale-Chhabrani have said that almost 100 fully grown trees had been cut down in the Ajni Railway Quarter area. And even after his complaint to the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), Horticulture Superintendent Amol Chorpagar also got the area inspected.
Trees were cut in Ajni Depot
No action of any kind has been initiated so far under the Maharashtra Urban Tree Protection Act, 1975, he claimed.
Apart from this, about 60 more trees have been cut in Ajni depot. In the month of March of 2021, the IMS contractor NCC Limited had also completely illegally cut about 12 trees to set up its temporary office. And along with this, the volunteers have also alleged that more than 100 trees have been cut by Mahametro for the construction of 1 viewing gallery and parking plaza in Futala Lake.
In each of these cases, the members of the NGO have stated that neither any compliance criteria have been complied with. Nor has permission been sought to cut down such a large number of trees for the construction of any new quarters. On the other hand, Nagpur Municipal Corporation has also completely failed to act on these complaints.
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