The Meghalaya High Court has set up a five-member High Powered Committee (HPC) to conduct thorough inquiry into the felling of trees near Eastern Air Command in Upper Shillong and to submit a comprehensive report to the court within three weeks.
The order was passed by the division bench of the High Court on the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by senior lawyer Kaustav Paul regarding felling of trees (some of which are of considerable heritage) for the purpose of widening of National Highway-40, which connects Shillong to Dawki, particularly in the vicinity of the Eastern Air Command.
“While the issue concerns public interest at large, before we proceed to make any observation or pass any final order, a five-member High Powered Committee (HPC) is hereby constituted, which will look into the specific grievances as sought to be highlighted in the instant PIL. A comprehensive report shall be submitted by the HPC on the next date after conducting a thorough and detailed enquiry with regard to the issue as highlighted and upon inspection of the actual site,” the division bench of Chief Justice Biswanath Somadder and Justice Hamarsan S. Thangkhiew said today.
The HPC comprises Advocate General Amit Kumar, senior lawyer and petitioner Kaustav Paul, a representative of the State Forests & Environment Department, a representative of National Highways and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (NHIDCL) and Jiwat Vaswani representing the general public.
It may be mentioned that a few days back, a section of people have expressed concern over the cutting down of the aged Cryptomeria Japonica trees, some more than 100 years old, near the Eastern Air Command for the four-lane road project.
However, Environment and Forest Minister, James K. Sangma recently informed that the heritage trees adjacent to Eastern Air Command headquarters have been shielded except for eight trees including two diseased standing trees whose felling was absolutely necessary.
He also said that to safeguard the heritage trees, the NHIDCL has decided to reduce the Right of Way (ROW) from standard 45-60 meters for four-laning of the road to a bare minimum 24-meters with the utility provisions like water pipe lines and electricity lines. To reduce ROW, the standard median of 2.5 meters has been reduced to a bare minimum of 0.6 meters.
Sangma also said that the government will compensate for felling of trees at Upper Shillong by afforestation which will be undertaken at Nongumiang in West Khasi Hills district.
According to him, compensatory afforestation would be undertaken in an equivalent non-forest area provided by NHIDCL at Nongumiang in accordance with the provision of the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
He also said that for every single tree felled for any purpose outside the forest land, ten trees shall have to be planted as compensation in order to ensure that the environment is protected.
