The National Green Tribunal (NGT) recently issued an order to all the states and Union Territories, and state pollution control boards to stop concretisation around roadside trees. The NGT cited Uttar Pradesh’s 2018 guidelines on urban landscaping for others to use.
While disposing of the case filed by two residents of Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Budh Nagar — Vikrant Tongad and Dr. Supriya Mahajan — the NGT said that while developing urban areas or for construction of road, road berms, footpath etc., local bodies shall follow the guidelines issued by various authorities and also the directions issued by the NGT against indiscriminate concretisation. With regards to the protection of trees, the NGT said that adequate area should be kept non-concretised around trees to ensure healthy growth and survival for longer period.
“We are issuing these directions pan India and a copy of this order shall be communicated to all the Chief Secretaries of States and Union Territories and State Pollution Control Boards/Pollution Control Committees for necessary action and compliance,” the NGT added.
In their plea, Tongad and Mahajan had alleged that in certain sectors of Noida and Greater Noida, there was considerable damage to the environment due to reckless, excessive and indiscriminate concretisation of road sides and road berms. The petitioners also alleged that this was in violation of earlier orders passed by the NGT, the Uttar Pradesh government, and the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
The plea filed by Tongad and Mahajan talks about certain authorities in Uttar Pradesh, but the case also highlights a larger issue of non-compliance in urban construction across the country.
The issue of indiscriminate concretising roads and pathways not only affects the tree cover, but also increases the amount of runoff water leading to urban floods and uprooting of trees in the rainy season.
Recently, Bengaluru-based social activist and president of Project Vruksha Foundation, Vijay Nishanth had also written to forest minister of Karnataka, Eshwar Khandre highlighting the issue of tree root concretisation in cities like Bengaluru, Mysuru, Hubballi and Ballari.
In his letter, Nishant urged the minister to issue a state-wide government directive to all urban local bodies and district forest offices to conduct tree health audits and immediately begin de-concretisation work in compliance with NGT rulings.
The Forest, Ecology and Environment Department of Karnataka, on June 18, issued a government order to make sure one metre area around the roots of roadside trees is not concretised.
Banner image: Roadside trees in Bengaluru. Image by T.R. Shankar Raman via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).
