IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY, NAGPUR BENCH : NAGPUR.

PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION 12 OF 2025 Ms Preeti Wasudeo Patel and others vs.

Nagpur Municipal Corporation, Nagpur and others -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Office Notes, Office Memoranda of Court's or Judge's Order Coram, appearances, Court's Orders or directions and Registrar's order -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mr. Mrinall Chakravorty, Advocate for petitioner.

Mr. J. B. Kasat, Advocate for respondent no.1.

Mr. S.K.Mishra, Senior Advocate with Mr. N.S.Rao, AGP for respondent no.2/State.

Mr. S.K.Mishra, Senior Advocate with Mr. Kabir Jhamb, Advocate for respondent no.3.

CORAM :- NITIN W. SAMBRE AND MRS. VRUSHALI V. JOSHI, JJ.

DATE :- 7^th MAY, 2025 P. C.

Heard.

This Public Interest Litigation canvasses the issue in regard to felling of trees which includes heritage trees in the matter of not only execution of public projects but also private one. Felling of trees in urban areas is governed by the provisions of the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act, 1975 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Trees Act’ for the sake of brevity).

3. The objections in the petition are for felling of the heritage and other trees and the permission granted for such felling of trees by the Tree Authority.

4. The counsel for the petitioner through Civil Application No. 452 of 2025 has brought to our notice the information collected by him from the Garden Department of the respondent Nagpur Municipal Corporation. According to him, since 2019 the permission is granted for felling of 6365 trees, as against the plantation of 89,308 trees is to be carried out. The year-wise data in tabular form with regard to grant of permissions and the plantation to be carried out reads thus:

ABSTRACT Details of cutting of trees and plantation of trees

Sr.No.	Year	No. of trees were cut	No of plantation of trees.
1	2019-20	904	4565
2	2020-21	1021	5467
3	2021-22	314	1645
4	2022-23	337	13485
5	2023-24	2804	46445
6	2024-25	976	17701
	Total	6365 (6356)	89308

It is also claimed that till this date 7549 trees are planted in view of the information made available by the Garden Department.

5. When confronted, the counsel for the respondent-Corporation submits that the statistics as regards the permission granted for felling of trees and plantation carried out from last 10 years can be compiled with and brought before this Court. We expect such data be brought before this Court through an affidavit duly sworn by the Tree Officer who is informed to be of the rank of the Deputy Municipal Commissioner.

6. As regards the permission granted and the trees to be planted is concerned, same figure is borne out of the record. However the relevant data is not produced before this Court so as to infer in reality as to how many trees were planted and the survival of such trees from the date of plantation.

7. There is a reason to believe that for felling of trees permissions are granted and the conditions are incorporated in felling of trees order about the compensatory plantation, however there is no supervision, check, audit as to whether the trees post felling were planted and the survival rate of such planted trees which may be in the execution of public or private projects.

8. One of the suggestions from the respective counsel including that of the counsel appearing for the petitioner is geo-tagging of the newly planted trees and to find out the mechanism which is transparent in nature to ensure that the planted trees are not only survived but casualties, if any, are duly attended by re-plantation.

9. The learned counsel appearing for the Corporation and Mr. Mishra, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondent no.3, so also for the State Government, submit that an affidavit dealing with the aforesaid issue thereby framing a proper mechanism no

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