Welcome intervention by apex court
By Brij Khandelwal
April 21, 2025
2025.04.21 (Vrindavan Today News): Vrindavan, Agra, Hyderabad, Mysore are in news these days because of the mass slaughter of full grown trees. Our cities, once vibrant mosaics of biodiversity and cultural reverence for nature, are being strangled by a relentless wave of deforestation, driven by developers and builders who prioritize profit over planetary survival. The clandestine felling of trees, often abetted by lax or complicit authorities, has reached a crisis point, with recent cases drawing the ire of the Supreme Court and the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
Tree lover and bio diversity expert Dr Mukul Pandya says, “These are not isolated acts of negligence but a systemic assault on India’s ecological foundation, fueled by unchecked urbanization. The consequences—crippling air pollution, urban heat islands, and escalating climate change risks—are turning cities into civilizational sinks. It’s time for a radical reckoning. India must fast-track green solutions like Miyawaki forests, vertical gardens, block forestry, and riverbank restoration to reclaim its urban landscapes as breathable, sustainable spaces.”
Environmentalist Dr Devashish Bhattacharya says, “The scale of ecological vandalism is staggering, with recent cases underscoring the audacity of developers and the failure of governance. In Telangana’s Kancha Gachibowli, the Supreme Court intervened in April 2025 to halt large-scale tree felling across 100 acres of forest land near the University of Hyderabad, where the state government was accused of unauthorized deforestation for development projects. The Court, expressing outrage, banned further felling and prioritized restoring the ecosystem, slamming the government for justifying “disturbing the ecosystem.”
In Shimla, the NGT took up a complaint in January 2025 regarding illegal tree felling, ordering the Principal Chief Conservator of Forest and Municipal Commissioner to investigate non-compliance with a Himachal Pradesh High Court order on tree numbering. In Delhi’s Southern Ridge, the NGT addressed encroachment and deforestation in January 2025, noting that 307.46 hectares of reserve forest land remain under encroachment despite removal efforts.
Beyond these, the NGT’s suo motu action in May 2024 highlighted a staggering loss of 2.33 million hectares of tree cover across India from 2000 to 2023, demanding explanations from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) and the Survey of India.
Green activist Jagan Nath Poddar says, “In Vrindavan, sacred groves have been decimated for infrastructure, eroding both spiritual and ecological heritage. The investigations are on and we hope the guilty will be punished.” Eco Club president Pradip Khandelwal says, “Agra’s green cover continues to shrink as commercial projects encroach on the Taj Mahal’s fragile ecosystem.” Colonisers and corrupt forest department officials have no love for greenery.
Activist Mukta Gupta says ” In Mysore, developers have razed tree-lined avenues for real estate, prompting public protests and judicial scrutiny. These cases, brought before the Supreme Court and NGT, expose a pattern: mature trees, vital carbon sinks and air purifiers, are sacrificed for short-term gains, with devastating long-term costs.”
The fallout from this deforestation spree is catastrophic. Air pollution, a public health emergency, worsens as trees—capable of filtering PM2.5 and absorbing 22 kg of CO2 annually—are felled. Indian cities dominate global pollution rankings, with Delhi’s AQI often exceeding 400 and contributing to 1.6 million premature deaths yearly (Lancet, 2020). Urban heat islands, fueled by concrete sprawl, drive temperatures to unbearable levels, spiking energy demands. Climate change impacts—erratic monsoons, flash floods, and droughts—are amplified as cities lose natural buffers. Bengaluru’s green cover has plummeted from 68% in the 1970s to under 15% today, while Mumbai’s mangroves vanish to reclamation projects.
The social toll is equally grim. Green space deprivation exacerbates mental health issues and deepens inequality, as affluent enclaves hoard private gardens while marginalized communities suffocate in treeless slums.
India’s cities, once cultural and ecological hubs, risk becoming unlivable wastelands unless this trajectory is reversed.
India must reject ornamental parks and embrace dense, functional green systems to combat this crisis. The following measures, grounded in proven techniques and recent judicial directives, can restore urban ecosystems:
Miyawaki Forests: Dense, Fast-Growing Urban Lungs The Miyawaki technique, creating dense native forests that grow 10 times faster and sequester more carbon, is ideal for cities. Projects in Bengaluru’s Whitefield and Mumbai’s suburbs show success. Municipalities must mandate Miyawaki forests on public lands, highways, and institutional campuses, with CSR funding and citizen involvement to scale efforts.
Space-starved cities can adopt vertical gardens on flyovers, metro pillars, and building facades, as seen in Chennai’s metro stations. Green roofs, insulated with native plants, can cut building energy use by 20-30%. Tax incentives and building code mandates can drive adoption, cooling urban heat islands and filtering pollutants.
Dense city forests, like Delhi’s Aravalli Biodiversity Park, must replace manicured parks. Block forestry—planting large patches of native trees—creates biodiversity hubs and carbon sinks. Cities should allocate 10-15% of land for such forests, with NGT-enforced anti-encroachment laws.
Urban rivers like the Yamuna and Musi are ecological wastelands. Restoring their banks with native trees, as proposed in the NGT’s Yamuna Pollution Case, can prevent erosion and recharge groundwater. Community-led planting and judicial oversight can ensure success.
Amend the Forest Conservation Act to impose stricter penalties for illegal felling, with jail terms for developers and officials, as demanded in the Kancha Gachibowli case.
Mandate GIS-based tree censuses, as in Bengaluru, with citizen apps to track green cover.
Empower NGT’s suo motu powers, upheld by the Supreme Court in 2021, to proactively address deforestation.
The Supreme Court and NGT’s interventions in Kancha Gachibowli, Shimla, Southern Ridge, and nationwide tree cover loss are a clarion call.
Without green lungs, India’s cities will choke on their own ambition. We must act before the last tree falls, and our cities become relics of a lost civilization.
