Review all pleas for chopping 50+ trees in Delhi: SC to CEC

The Supreme Court on Thursday appointed the Central Empowered Committee (CEC) as the supervisory authority to review all applications for felling 50 or more trees in Delhi, emphasising the critical need to preserve the city's dwindling green cover and lamenting the failure of tree authorities to implement the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 (DPTA) effectively.

- Utkarsh Anand

NEW DELHI:

The court also ordered a comprehensive tree census in Delhi with assistance from the Forest Research Institute (FRI) and a panel of experts to determine the extent of tree loss.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and AG Masih delivered the ruling after scrutinising the lapses in enforcing the provisions of the 1994 Act, which it said is meant to preserve trees rather than permit their indiscriminate felling.

Observing that the Act had been misused, the bench emphasised that the state's duty to protect natural resources stems from its constitutional obligations. "The object of the Act is to preserve the trees and not to permit their cutting or felling. Permission to fell trees must be granted only in exceptional circumstances and cannot become a routine practice," it held.