Supreme Court Lifts Stay On Tree Felling For Railway Line Between Mathura & Jhansi

The Supreme Court on Monday lifted its stay on the felling of trees for the construction of a railway line between Mathura and Jhansi observing the Rail Vikas Nigam Limited had completed the mandatory planting of 50,943 saplings.

A bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Manmohan was informed by the central empowered committee that the railway body was granted permission on May 13, 2022, for felling 5,094 trees subject to planting of 50,943 saplings.

"We have perused report concerning compliance with order dated May 13, 2022 by Rail Vikas Nigam Limited. The project is with regard to third railway line between to Mathura and Jhansi. The report of CEC indicates that compliance of planting 50,943 trees has been done. We vacate the October 14 stay order on the project," the bench said.

The apex court on October 14 observed the compensatory afforestation was not done, prompting to halt the construction work.

In October, the counsel appearing for the railway body said after the court granted it permission to fell 5,094 trees on May 13, 2022, it granted the necessary amount to the Uttar Pradesh Forest Department for compulsory afforestation.

"We are constructing a by-pass rail line in the Agra division of north-central Railway for the rail line between Mathura junction and Jhansi. But we don't know if there was a compliance with the court's condition or not. Now the forest department is pinning the liability on us," he had submitted.

The bench then told the counsel the court's permission was granted to RVNL for felling trees and it was the railway body's responsibility to see if the conditions were complied with or not.

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