Chandigarh: Nine months after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Haryana government to devise a policy for regulation of tree felling on non-forest land, the Khattar dispensation is working on instituting such a mechanism.
“In Haryana, trees come under three different categories of land. Forest land, which is covered under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, land in urban areas and in rural areas,” Haryana Chief Secretary Sanjeev Kaushal told ThePrint, confirming the development.
Currently, urban civic bodies are the competent authorities that permit cutting of trees in urban areas while the state government’s Development and Panchayats Department must be approached for rural areas, he said.
“Ever since NGT’s directions (last July), we have had two meetings with the officers of the concerned department. In the very first meeting, everything was discussed in detail,” Kaushal told ThePrint.
Last July, the principal bench of the NGT under Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel had directed the state government to develop such a mechanism while hearing an application by a Kurukshetra-based environmental NGO, Green Earth. In its application, the NGO stated that the Kurukshetra Development Board had plans to cut down 24 indigenous trees at Krishna Vatika, Jyotisar Tirtha.
The trees there were planted in the 1970s by former prime minister Gulzari Lal Nanda and former chief minister Bansi Lal, the application, further said.
The state government is developing Jyotisar, the birthplace of the Bhagavad Gita, as a major destination for religious tourism in Kurukshetra.
Haryana chief secretary Kaushal said trees on non-forest land were covered under two laws — the Haryana Panchayati Raj Act 1994 for rural areas, and the Haryana Urban Development Authority Act 1977, for urban areas.
But an environmentalist ThePrint spoke to is of the opinion that these laws are insufficient to provide protection. “Haryana has a forest cover of 3.63 per cent. This is even lower than Rajasthan’s (4.87 per cent), which is called a desert state. If Haryana can’t come out with a stern law to prevent cutting of trees, we are definitely heading towards desertification,” said Vaishali Rana Chandra, an environmentalist from Gurugram.
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What the NGT order said
In its application, Green Earth asked for directions to the Kurukshetra Development Board and deputy commissioner, among others, against cutting of trees and de-concretisation of tree roots at Jyotisar Tirath.
According to the NGO, Haryana’s tourism department and the Kurukshetra Development Board were to cut down 24 indigenous trees — among them nine Arjun trees, one banyan, one neem, eight Siris, two Gulmohars — on 14 April last year.
In their response, the Kurukshetra Development Board and Haryana tourism department argued that it was essential to fell the trees to provide more facilities for pilgrims and tourists. They also promised to plant “ten times the number of trees to be cut” as compensatory afforestation.
“Compensatory afforestation” is a policy that requires an agency that diverts forest land for non-forest purposes to pay by planting forests over an equal area of non-forest land, or when such land is not available, on twice the area of degraded forest land.
In its order, the NGT said that it was “undisputed that no permission has been granted for cutting of trees by any competent authority”.
“Learned counsel for the respondents submitted that there is no regulatory mechanism in Haryana on the pattern of Delhi Tree Preservation Act, 1994, and thus, no permission for cutting trees outside forest area is required,” it further said. “Accordingly, we direct the chief secretary, Haryana, to look into the matter and if no regulation exists, the same be laid down within a month. Regulatory mechanism be complied (with) before cutting the trees in question.”
‘Destined to become a desert’
Speaking to ThePrint, Kaushal said that the state government would devise a mechanism that would “ensure that the trees to be planted under compensatory afforestation are duly planted in case permission is granted for felling”.
But, according to an official from Haryana Shehri Vikas Pradhikaran (HSVP) — a body previously known as Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) — such a provision already exists. Permission of the appropriate estate officer is required to cut trees in protected woodland areas in zoning plans, the official, who didn’t want to be named, told ThePrint.
“Where permission is granted, the estate officer, or such other authorised officer, may give direction to the owner of any site as to the planting or replanting (of trees),” said the official.
But he admitted that while rules exist, there’s no mechanism to enforce them in full.
“The rules are already in place to stop felling of trees in the non-forest areas, and also to require those allowed to cut trees for infrastructural projects to plant more trees under compensatory afforestation,” he said. “But there isn’t any fool-proof mechanism to ensure that the number of trees a person is required to plant are actually planted, and that they survive too,” the official further said, adding that the present efforts are aimed at devising just such a system.
Asked if the Haryana government was thinking of making a law along the lines of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994, or Uttar Pradesh Protection of Trees Act, 1976, Kaushal said existing provisions were sufficient.
Both laws are meant to protect trees in non-forest areas and provide a penalty for contravention, which includes a prison sentence and a fine.
But according to environmentalist Chandra, Haryana’s existing laws lack teeth and more needs to be done to protect trees in non-forest land. She said that according to India State of Forest Report 2021, Haryana’s tree cover has gone down to 1,425 sq.km from 1,565 sq.km in 2019.
In an effort to protect the state’s forest resources, Haryana framed its own Forest Policy in 2006, in which it decided to fix a goal of achieving 20 per cent forest cover in a “phased manner”.
However, this is much lower than the National Forest Policy of 1988, which recommends an optimal 33 per cent cover for plains.
“Haryana’s forest policy already promises a much smaller tree cover than the national policy,” Chandra said. “Moreover, the manner in which trees are being allowed to be felled, the state is certainly destined to be a desert in the coming years.”
This is an updated version of the copy.
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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