NGT Issues Notice To Environment Ministry And Forest Departments Over Loss Of 6 Million Trees

NGT Issues Notice To Environment Ministry And Forest Departments Over Loss Of 6 Million Trees

The matter will be heard on 31 July

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notices to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and forest departments of Maharashtra, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh over the alleged disappearance of six million trees from farmlands between 2019 and 2022.

The Coram of Justice Prakash Shrivastava (Chairperson), Justice Arun Kumar Tyagi (Judicial Member) and Dr A Senthil Vel (Expert Member) noted that massive loss of trees was observed in Telangana and Maharashtra.

The NGT order read, “The disappearance of mature farmland trees was observed in many areas, but numbers rarely exceed 5 to 10 percent, except for areas in central India, particularly in Telangana and Maharashtra, where massive loss of large trees was observed.”

The tribunal registered the matter suo motu based on a news report.

The report claimed that between 2018 and 2020, Telangana, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh, particularly the areas around Indore, Madhya Pradesh, experienced a massive loss of trees and the disappearance of mature farmlands.

The tribunal noted that in Telangana and Maharashtra, several hotspots lost up to 50 percent of their large farmland trees and 22 trees per sq km disappeared.

This meant violating the Environment Protection Act, 1986, and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980.

Thus, it issued notices to MoEF and the chief conservators of forests of the three states.