Mumbai: The Bombay high court has asked NEERI to conduct a survey of the 296 trees that the Highway Division wants to cut on the Pune-Nashik highway for road widening. The court issued the directions after a petitioner complained that the highway authorities were going to cut the trees indiscriminately. The highway authorities claimed that there was an urgency to widen the road as there have been 46 accidents in the past year out of which 12 were fatal.
A division bench of justices AS Oka and Riyaz Chagla was hearing a civil application filed by National Highway Division in a public interest litigation filed by the Nashik Nagrik Kruti Samiti seeking restraining orders to the highway authorities from felling the trees without a proper plan for replanting them elsewhere. On Thursday when the application by the highway authorities came up for hearing, they pleaded that as they had got requisite permissions from concerned authorities to cut the trees, the court should lift the restraining order. It urged the court to lift the stay as the patch where the trees were located was very narrow and had witnessed numerous accidents. Hence for the safety and benefit of the motorists, the court should permit the removal of the trees.
However, the petitioner contended that the highway division had no concrete plan to replant the trees.
In light of the fact that the issue has been pending since two years, the court asked the highway authority whether they were willing to have the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) conduct a survey and suggest a way forward.
