HYDERABAD: The forest department has given the green signal to the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) for felling 1,394 trees on the four roads around the KBR National Park to facilitate construction of multilevel flyovers in phases as part of the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP).
However, it has laid down three new conditions to be followed by GHMC along with 14 others issued by the Tree Protection Committee (TPC) last year. It has said the jogging track around KBR Park should be left untouched. Trees/shrubs should be planted below the multilevel flyovers. And, LED sign posts displaying pollution levels in air should be installed.
As per the proceedings of the forest department on felling of trees around KBR Park, issued by principal chief conservator of forests PK Jha, which has been accessed by Express, two important factors emerge in the go-ahead to GHMC: clarification on the issue by Union ministry of environment and forests (MoEF) and resolution of three objections raised by National Green Tribunal.
MoEF’S CLARIFICATION: The state forest department had referred the KBR Park issue to the Forest Conservation Division of MoEF in July this year. The MoEF gave a clarification that felling of trees for SRDP should be done as per its September 2016 guidelines on felling of trees in Eco Sensitive Zones. The guidelines say that the procedure and authority stipulated by state governments have to be followed, which, in Telangana’s case, is Tree Protection Committee (TPC) functioning under Water, Land and Trees Act, 2002 (WALTA). As GHMC had obtained TMC’s permission in 2016 itself for felling 1,394 trees, it can go ahead with the work.
NGT’S OBJECTIONS: The National Green tribunal, in its verdict on the KBR Park issue, had posed three main questions and objections. Do the trees to be chopped fall within KBR National Park? But it is not the case. Will construction of multi-level flyovers around KBR Park require environmental clearance? The answer is again ‘no’. The most important objection was that chopping of 1,394 trees violated rules on felling of trees in Eco Sensitive Zone (ESZ). It might have been the case as per the ESZ proposed in 2015 but it lapsed this year due to non-finalisation within 545 days after being proposed. As a result, a new ESZ has been proposed for KBR Park by the Telangana government. It ranges between 3 metres and 29.8 metres from the boundary of the national park and it has been sent to MoEF for finalisation.
When asked, Jha said that it was not necessary for GHMC to wait until final notification as TPC had already given clearance and none of the trees to be felled would be within the new ESZ.
The NGT had directed the Telangana government to approach the National Board for Wildlife (NBWL) and the latter washed of its hands, saying that it had no say in the matter.