India’s National Green Tribunal (NGT), southern zone bench in Chennai, issued an order on Friday, 16 October, restraining the felling of trees anywhere along Bengaluru’s Hebbal Short Tunnel project until the case is disposed of. The next hearing is listed for 15 December. The Hindu published the decision on Saturday evening.

The order, as quoted by The Hindu, says there should be no cutting of trees in any area of the project until the matter is disposed of. Until at least mid-December, the Bangalore Development Authority (BDA) cannot fell trees along the alignment. This is not a final verdict and it does not cancel the tunnel: it is a restraint pending judgment.

In September, The Hindu reported that 1,128 trees from more than 70 species had been marked for felling. The Times of India says Friday’s order followed a petition by the Mangaluru-based Aranya Parisara Mathu Havamana Badalavane Sangha (Society for Forest, Environment and Climate Change). Secretary Benedict Fernandes said authorities cannot cut trees anywhere on the stretch until the case is disposed of. The petition also raises risks to Hebbal Lake, wetlands, groundwater and natural drainage — as the applicants’ arguments, not as findings of the tribunal.

The NGT had first taken the matter up on its own motion after the 24 September report. The Karnataka government then told the tribunal that writ petitions on the same issue were pending in the High Court and that the advocate-general had undertaken that no trees would be cut until those cases were disposed of. The tribunal closed the suo motu case on that representation.

The Mangaluru group pointed to a mismatch: the High Court undertaking cited in the suo motu hearing related to the Lalbagh area, not the whole Hebbal alignment, even though it concerned the same project. Government counsel confirmed before the NGT that the undertaking was for a different area. Only then did the Friday order follow, covering, in the tribunal’s words, the entire project and tree-felling for it.

The stated length of the route is not the same in every document. A Greater Bengaluru Authority (GBA) public notice refers to the “removal” of trees along Hebbal Main Road for a 2.3 km twin tunnel. The Times of India describes a 2.2 km tunnel between Hebbal’s Esteem Mall Junction and the Veterinary College on Bellary Road, and says work has already begun on vacant land on the college campus. Starting on vacant land is not felling along the whole alignment.

BDA chairman N. A. Haris told The Hindu the authority does not intend to fell all 1,128 trees, but to translocate 1,072 and axe the rest. Groups opposing the short tunnel say the BDA cannot announce that outcome on its own: the Tree Expert Committee would have to decide. The NGT order does not approve either translocation or felling; it stops both until the case is disposed of.

Image: Hebbal flyover, Bengaluru, 8 June 2014, Veera.sj, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The flyover and adjoining land, not the proposed tunnel and not the NGT courtroom in Chennai.

Sources consulted: NGT halts tree felling for Hebbal Short Tunnel Project — The Hindu; NGT bars tree-felling for Hebbal tunnel project in Bengaluru until case disposal — Times of India.