HC prohibits tree felling in Bhopal without its nod, summons 7 officials

Jabalpur, Nov 20 (PTI) Taking a suo motu action over reports of `unauthorised' felling of hundreds of trees for road widening, the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Thursday summoned seven senior officials, and directed that no tree in Bhopal be cut without its permission for the time being.

The Raisen division of the Public Works Department chopped down 488 trees for widening the Bhojpur-Berasia road near Bhopal without mandatory approvals, according to a newspaper report.

The court issued notices to the executive engineer of the PWD, under-secretary of the Vidhan Sabha secretariat, administrative officer-cum-under secretary of the Vidhan Sabha secretariat, Bhopal municipal commissioner, principal chief conservator of forests, principal secretary of the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat, and the general manager of the West Central Railway, summoning them on November 26.

"In the meantime, it is directed that no tree in the entire area of Bhopal shall be cut, pruned or transplanted in any manner except with the leave of this court," the division bench of Chief Justice Sanjiv Sachdeva and Justice Vinay Saraf said.

As per the National Green Tribunal guidelines, the state government must form a committee for matters relating to tree felling, and any project requiring removal of trees must obtain clearance from that committee.

In the present case, the government had not taken permission either from the nine-member panel or designated tree officer, the report claimed.

The government told the HC that the district collector had permitted the transplantation of 448 trees, and ten times the number of trees that could not be transplanted would be planted. As many as 253 trees were transplanted, the court was told.

But Bhopal resident Nitin Saxena, whom the court allowed to intervene, submitted that photographs showed no evidence of transplantation.

The bench then ordered the state government to submit satellite-based photographs of the transplanted trees with GPS details.

At Thursday's hearing, Saxena informed that a proposal to remove another 244 trees in Bhopal for residential complexes was pending in another case. Citing a newspaper report of Thursday, he said a new subterfuge was being used where trees were being cut under the guise of "shifting", since obtaining permission for cutting was difficult.

The bench noted the state government's submission that Madhya Pradesh has no tree-plantation policy. Photographs placed before the court showed that the so-called transplantation process involved removing all branches and leaves and replanting only the trunk.

A communication dated October 30, 2025, from the executive engineer of the Vidhan Sabha Building Controller to the principal secretary of the Vidhan Sabha Secretariat stated that several trees were obstructing the construction of a residential complex, and were being removed, the newspaper report stated.

The official letter added that a large quantity of branches and wood were being collected, and requested permission to use the material. The court observed that this indicated that neither transplantation nor protection of trees was being attempted, and preparations were underway to remove 244 trees. PTI COR LAL KRK