SHILLONG, July 22: The High Court of Meghalaya has directed the concerned parties to take steps in accordance with the recommendations of the high-powered committee (HPC) in the matter pertaining to the felling of trees for the purpose of widening of National Highway 40, which connects Shillong with Dawki.
In its report submitted on Wednesday, the five-member HPC has said that the National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. has agreed in terms of its undertaking to execute the project for expansion of NH 40 (Shillong to Dawki) without cutting any heritage tree (between chainage 6.590 km to 7.360 km).
As per the undertaking of NHIDCL, around 135 heritage trees falling (in) the right of way will be saved in pursuance of the understanding reached between all the stakeholders between the chainage 6.130 km to 7.360 km.
It also said that as and when the need arises, the user agency or the concerned authority can approach the state government for seeking approval for laying down utility infrastructure like water pipelines and telephone lines, etc., through reserved forest in terms of general approval of the Government of India under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980 and Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change guidelines for the stated public utility projects.
Transplantation of certain non-heritage trees is not a viable solution since it appears to be costly and cumbersome and therefore the HPC is of the view that compensatory afforestation and strip plantation may be adopted as an effective and viable solution.
The HPC also said that the highway expansion project should be completed at the earliest in public interest without cutting the heritage trees.
The matter was adjourned till August 9 for further consideration.
It may be mentioned that the High Court, in an order issued on June 30, had constituted a five-member committee to suggest to the Court viable means to resolve the issue raised in the Public Interest Litigation (PIL) without compromising either with conservation of trees (some of which are of considerable heritage) and environment on one hand and development/expansion of the road project on the other.
The PIL had been filed by city-based lawyer, Kaustav Paul.
Member of the committee include Advocate General, Amit Kumar; Advocate, Kaustav Paul (petitioner); a representative of the Forests & Environment Department; a representative of NHIDCL a entrepreneur and environmentalist, Jiwat Vaswani.
