SC puts on hold felling of trees for road projects
The Supreme Court on Wednesday put the Uttar Pradesh government in a quandary over the assessment of oxygen-releasing capacity of trees that the state government seeks to cut for road projects around the Krishna Janmabhoomi in Mathura.
A bench led by Chief Justice of India (CJI) SA Bobde declined to approve the tree felling in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ ), a defined area of 10,400 sq km around the Taj Mahal to protect the monument from pollution, until the state spells out its method of evaluating a tree, including how much oxygen it gives off.
“You cannot cut trees…only in the name of Lord Krishna. Is there any evaluation on how much oxygen these trees produce? You cannot simply say we will plant a week-old sapling in lieu of a 100-year -old tree.There can be no comparison between the two in terms of oxygen they release,” the bench told additional solicitor general Aishwarya Bharti and senior advocate SWA Qadri.
