Order of the Supreme Court of India in the matter of census of trees in Taj Trapezium Zone, Agra, Uttar Pradesh, 05/03/2025
Order of the Supreme Court in the matter of M C Mehta Vs Union of India & Others dated 05/03/2025. The matter is related to the census of trees.
The bench of Justice Abhay S Oka and Nongmeikapam Kotiswar Singh said that the object of the 1976 Act is to protect the trees and not to encourage felling of trees. Sections 4 and 5 of the 1976 Act provide for grant of permission to fell or remove the trees. If trees are felled without permission, there are penal provisions starting from Section 10 onwards. The penal provisions cannot be implemented unless the data of existing trees are available. The data can be made available only if there is a proper tree census carried out. Without tree census, there cannot be any effective implementation of the provisions of the 1976 Act.
The SC, therefore, directed the Taj Trapezium Zone Authority (TTZ Authority) to appoint the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun as an Authority to carry out the tree census of all the existing trees within the area of TTZ. The apex court made it clear that all the local Authorities, the State Government and the TTZ Authority should render every possible cooperation to the FRI while carrying out the tree census. The affidavit by the FRI should be filed by the end of March 2025.