The Supreme Court on Tuesday halted the felling of nearly 25,000 trees in Delhi’s Shahabad Mohammadpur, intended for the expansion of the Bijwasan railway station [Naveen Solanki and Another v. Rail Land Development Authority and Others].
A bench of Justices Abhay Oka and Pankaj Mithal issued the order in response to an appeal against a February 13 ruling by the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which had allowed the tree-cutting. The NGT had determined that the 120-acre area of green cover did not qualify as “forest land” under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
The Supreme Court, however, restrained the authorities from felling or damaging any trees on the land, and explicitly prohibited construction activities there.
The appellants argued that the project area is a “deemed forest,” protected under the 1996 Supreme Court decision in TN Godavarman v. Union of India. They also highlighted the area’s critical role as a carbon dioxide filter and a vital green lung for Southwest Delhi, where green cover is scarce.
The Court requested responses from the Rail Land Development Authority, the Delhi Forest Department, and the project contractor, issuing an interim notice and scheduling the case for further hearing on October 21.
Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, along with a team of advocates, represented the appellants.
