BENGALURU: The High Court on Wednesday issued an interim order staying the felling and translocation of trees for Metro rail projects in the city. A division bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice E S Indiresh said no further action should be taken on the order of the tree officer which permitted the felling and translocation of trees.
Hearing a PIL filed by Dattatreya T Devare and Bangalore Environment Trust, the bench noted that neither the tree officer nor the special committee constituted to scrutinise the BMRCL’s applications for felling and translocation of trees, had applied their minds while taking a decision on the trees along the Metro projects. As the counsel for BMRCL submitted that a number of trees had already been felled or translocated based on a May 21 order, the bench make it clear the BMRCL should take care of the translocated trees for three years.