UGC road project: NGT seeks clarificatory reports on environment impact, tree felling

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed different agencies to submit clarificatory affidavits on different aspects of the environmental impact assessment and the extent of tree felling that would be required to construct the 111km Upper Ganga Canal road project through the protected forest areas from Muradnagar in Ghaziabad to near Purkazi in Muzaffarnagar.

The tribunal is hearing the matter after taking suo motu cognizance of an HT report titled “UP gives permission to fell 112,000 trees for road along Upper Ganga Canal” published on February 1 and has sought responses from states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

The project proposal stated that 112,000 trees and shrubs will be felled in the protected forest area of three forest divisions of Ghaziabad, Meerut and Muzaffarnagar.

A road already exists on the right flank of the canal from Muradnagar to near Purkazi and the proposed road will come up on the left flank, said UP government officials.

The road stretch is more commonly known as “Kanwar Marg” and environmentalists have claimed that the massive tree felling would severely impact environment and the natural wildlife habitat in the region.

In this connection, the tribunal, during the previous hearing on November 6, directed the Survey of India to file a report showing the comparative position of trees existing in 2023 and the trees felled till October 2024 in the stretches under consideration.

The agency filed a compliance report before the tribunal on November 21.

After analysis of the report, the tribunal during the latest hearing on November 25, said, “We have also noticed following gaps/anomalies in the report during the course of hearing: assessment of tree felling/contour/resolution has been completed with 28cm rather than 5cm; proceedings so far could not disclose extent of trees fell and areas identified/demarcated for compensatory plantation; report of Survey of India discloses that certain stretches have witnessed tree cutting but, their locations are not disclosed; no environmental impact assessment on account of road construction particularly with reference to maintain integrity of biodiversity/terrestrial ecology is disclosed,” the tribunal said in its order uploaded on December 11.

On the other hand, the state of UP is yet to file a final report of a joint committee as directed by the tribunal.

The tribunal on August 9 directed the formation of a joint committee comprising the director of Forest Survey of India, a Union environment ministry senior scientist, and the UP chief secretary or his representative.

It was directed that the committee visit the project site and ascertain the truthfulness of the illegal felling of trees as well as the figures relating to the felling, among other details.

The tribunal on November 6 took note of an interim report of the joint committee and recorded that certain information from different departments was awaited.

During the hearing on November 25, the counsels appearing for the state of Uttar Pradesh informed the tribunal that the “final report of the joint committee will be filed within four weeks”.

HT on Thursday reached out to public works department (PWD) executive engineer Ram Raja, but he did not respond to calls for comment.

Further, the tribunal also directed the Union environment ministry to clarify the position with respect to Section 36 of Biodiversity Act, 2006. The section deals with assessment of environmental impact of a project in order to minimise any adverse effect on biodiversity.

The tribunal will next hear the case on December 23.