SHILLONG, Oct 4: The High Court of Meghalaya has ordered the realignment of the proposed Shillong-Dawki road by shifting the right of way by 3 meters for a stretch of 200 meters only.
Hearing a PIL on the cutting of iconic tress in a 300-metre stretch of the road in Upper Shillong, the court’s Division Bench perused the minutes of the High-Powered Committee (HPC) and observed that there is an imperative necessity for shifting right of way by 3 meters.
The court said this is required to be done in order to protect the environment and conserve the trees, some of which are of considerable heritage, adding “it cannot be said that this action will compromise with the development/expansion of the road project”, which is for a total length of approximately 72 km.
“Here we are concerned with a stretch of 200 meters only. The executive director (P), National Highways & Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd. (NHIDCL) has highlighted a few difficulties, which are duly recorded in the minutes of the HPC dated 29th September 2021. However, we do not consider these difficulties to be of such an insurmountable nature, which would weigh in favour of felling of the heritage trees that fall within the stretch of 200 meters or for that matter, compromising with the environment, particularly when the total development/expansion of the road project is for a considerable length of about 72 km,” the order of Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Justice HS Thangkhiew said.
For a fresh forest clearance under the Forest (Conservation) Act required to be obtained for this limited purpose, the court asked the Assistant Solicitor General to impress upon the Ministry concerned to issue such clearance within four weeks from the date of the order.
The court also requested the Advocate General to ensure that necessary clearance is facilitated by the state Forest Department within the same time. It added that the Assistant Solicitor General should ensure that other clearances required from the Ministry of Forest Environment and Climate Change are also obtained within these four weeks.
According to the order, once all clearances are obtained, the process of realignment shall be completed by the NHIDCL within six weeks therefrom.
The court said the time-specific directions have been issued because the Executive Director (P) of NHIDCL had apprehensively stated that an earlier clearance was obtained by the user agency by going through a rigorous process and it took almost two years.
“We do not find the excuse of the time-consuming process as a justifiable reason in order to compromise with protection of our environment and conservation of heritage trees. In view of our specific directions, we do not expect that there would be any delay in obtaining necessary clearances from the appropriate authorities…,” the order said while disposing of the writ petition.
When the matter was taken up for hearing on September 30, the Senior Advocate had drawn the court’s attention to the minutes of the meeting of the HPC on September 29.
The meeting was held to discuss the issue concerning 20 or more trees falling in the chainage stretch between 5.6 and 5.8 metres. Senior advocate K. Paul and environmentalist Jiwat Vaswani suggested that if the road can be shifted by 3 meters on the right-hand side, all trees can be saved.
Col. Narendra Sheoran, the executive director (P) of NHIDCL’s regional office in Shillong, apprised the HPC members of the difficulties in shifting the right of way by 3 meters. He said the resultant realignment of the road “shall necessarily involve diversion of land in Upper Shillong which is part of protected/reserved forest”. This would for the user agency entail obtaining a fresh forest clearance under the Forest Conservation Act and involve taking clearance all over again.
Col. Sheoran had also submitted that the user agency will be required to change the proposals for compensatory afforestation and other processes involved would delay the project and lead to cost escalation. He further submitted that saving 20 trees would not be worthwhile.
MBK Reddy, Additional Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (T) had endorsed the views of Col. Sheoran by stating that seeking the clearances would be a time-consuming process.
