'Alarming' : Supreme Court Stops Tree Felling In Kancha Gachibowli; Asks Telangana Chief Secretary To Explain 'Compelling Urgency'

Expressing shock at the large-scale felling of trees in hundreds of acres of land in the Kancha Gachibowli area in Hyderabad, the Supreme Court on Thursday (April 3) ordered to stop all sorts of developmental activities carried out there. "Until further orders, no activity of any sort, except the protection of trees already existing, shall be undertaken by the State," ordered a bench comprising Justice BR Gavai and Justice AG Masih registering a suo motu case on the issue."In case any of the directions issued by us are not complied with in true letter and spirit, the Chief Secretary of the State shall be held personally liable," the bench warned.The Court asked the Chief Secretary of the State of Telangana to file an affidavit answering the following specific queries :What was the compelling urgency to undertake the developmental activities including the removal of trees from the alleged forest area?Whether for such development activity, the State has obtained the Environmental Impact Assessment certification.Whether for felling the trees, requisite permissions from the forest authorities, or any other local statutes have been obtained or not?What is the necessity of having officers(specified in the order) in the committee constituted by the State of Telangana in as much as prima facie they have nothing to do with the identification of forests?What the State is doing with the felled trees?Earlier in the day, the bench had passed an interim order staying tree felling in the area and directed the Registrar (Judicial) of Telangana High Court to inspect the site and submit a report today by 3:30 PM.When the matter was taken up at 3:45 PM, the Court noted that the Registrar (Judicial) has filed a report, which revealed that huge development activity was being undertaken in the area. The Court said that the Report of the High Court's Registrar (Judicial) showed an "alarming picture" as a huge number of trees were felled, deploying huge machinery and JCBs to disturb the area of hundreds of acres. The Court also referred to pictures showing peacocks and deers fleeing from the region amidst the destruction activities.The Court said that the report and the pictures prima facie indicated that a forest inhabited by wild animals existed in the region.In its order, the Court referred to its order passed on March 4 which directed that the State Chief Secretaries would be held personally liable if the statutory committees were not constituted to identify forest lands. The Court also referred to its previous order(passed on February 3) which barred States from reducing forest areas unless compensatory land was provided for afforestation. The Court noted that the committee for forest land was constituted in the State of Telangana on March 15. Against this backdrop, the Court wondered what was the "alarming urgency" in cutting down the trees when the statutory exercise to identify the forest lands was yet to commence.Senior Advocate Gaurav Agarwal appearing for the State took the stand that the area was not a forest area. However, the argument did not appeal to the bench. Even if it was not a forest area, whether requisite permission was taken for cutting the trees, the bench asked."Forest or not, whether you have taken requisite permission for felling trees...100 acres in 2-3 days is something...we would only remind one sentence - howsoever high one may be, not above the law," Justice Gavai said.Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appearing for certain intervenors told the bench that the students who were protesting against the tree-felling were being detained.Briefly put, the issue arises out of a government order, statedly issued by Telangana State Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (TSIIC), seeking to alienate 400 acres of green cover land in the Kancha Gachibowli forest area, for setting up IT infrastructure. In the past few days, there have been reports of wide-scale clearing of the trees on the land, prompting protests against the state government.Yesterday, the Telangana High Court stayed felling of trees on the subject land until today, when the matter was slated to be taken up.As per claims, TSIIC acquired the land in 2012 and issued the subject order in 2024 with an intention to alienate the land for furtherance of the IT sector. In furtherance of the same, it began to cut down trees on the land and recently, the rate of felling of trees became brisk. Huge machines were brought on site to cut down trees, which prompted initiation of PILs before the High Court.The PIL-petitioners argued that the government was proceeding in blatant disregard of two Supreme Court judgments viz. TN Godavarman Thirumulpad v. Union of India and Ashok Kumar Sharma v. Union of India and Others where all states were directed to form committees for identification of forest and forest-like areas as per the dictionary meaning of forest. It was further their case that the land was being auctioned to set up an IT park, yet no...

'Alarming' : Supreme Court Stops Tree Felling In Kancha Gachibowli; Asks Telangana Chief Secretary To Explain 'Compelling Urgency'

Debby Jain

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