The Supreme Court on Wednesday criticised the Telangana government for justifying the large-scale felling of trees across 100 acres of the 400 acres of ecologically sensitive Kancha Gachibowli area in Hyderabad.
Pulling up the state for acting in clear violation of established environmental norms, the Court warned that senior bureaucrats, including the State Chief Secretary, could face “temporary imprisonment” if the damage was not addressed through an immediate restoration plan to be submitted to the court in four weeks.
A bench of Justices Bhushan R Gavai and Augustine George Masih ordered there be no further felling of trees and directed the Wildlife Warden in the state to take immediate steps for protecting the wildlife in the deforested area.
The bench also rejected the state’s argument that the thousands of trees felled fell under an “exempted” category and therefore did not require prior permission.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi argued that the State had felled only such trees that were classified as exempted species under the Telangana Water Land and Trees Act, 2002. As per the Act, if any owner desires to fell the exempted species, a mere self-certification submitted before the Forest Divisional Officer in a pre-prescribed format is adequate for clearing or felling them, Singhvi told the court.
“Even private forests require the court’s permission to fell trees,” the bench observed, stressing that no bureaucratic rules or interpretations can override the Supreme Court’s landmark 1996 judgment in the TN Godavarman case.
“We are not bothered by anything else. We are only concerned with the damage caused to the environment. Any enactment or interpretation which falls foul of this Court’s December 12, 1996 order will not be tolerated. We were shocked to see visuals of animals running for shelter. We were told some were even attacked by stray dogs,” the Court said.
It added that the only acceptable course now for the State was to present a credible plan for ecological restoration of the 100-acre forest patch.
“If you want to save your Chief Secretary and senior bureaucrats from going to prison, show us how you will restore the land,” the bench said.
Solicitor General of India, Tushar Mehta, who appeared for the union government submitted that even for public interest development projects such as the metro rail project, governments came to court to seek permission to fell trees.
The court said, “If the State wished to construct something, it should have taken permission.” It pointed to past instances where the Centre approached the top court for expansion of strategic roads in the hilly terrain of Uttarakhand for effective troop mobilisation to border areas, “In environmental matters, we are not going to tolerate violation of our orders. If there is any self-certification order that state is relying upon, it will be a violation of our December 1996 order.”
In the 1996 decision in TN Godavarman case, the top court gave an expansive meaning to forests and held that ‘forest land’ as defined in Section 2 of the Forest Conservation Act (FCA) would include not only forests as understood in the dictionary sense but any area recorded as forest in the government records.
“Under Article 142 (of the Constitution), we can do anything. We will go out of the way if needed to protect environment. Let them (State) satisfy how they overcame the 1996 order,” the bench said.
On April 3 this year, the Supreme Court suo motu took up the issue of the ongoing deforestation on the said 400 acres of land near the Hyderabad Central University (HCU) campus. At the time, it directed the Telangana government to immediately halt all tree-felling and excavation activities at the site.
The court had also directed the Registrar (judicial) of the Telangana high court to conduct a site inspection and submit an interim report. Subsequently, it directed CEC, the statutory expert body too to submit a site inspection report.
The Apex Court’s intervention had come amidst media reports and citizens’ protests highlighting large-scale clearing of green cover in the area over a long weekend in the first week of April. The reports suggested that authorities had taken advantage of the holidays to expedite deforestation, threatening the habitat of at least eight endangered or threatened animal species.
Senior advocate K Parameshwar, who has been assisting the bench as amicus curiae in environmental matters, brought the issue to the notice of the court.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court asked the State what was the tearing hurry to bring in bulldozers over the “long holiday weekend?” However, the state contended there was no hurry as the process began in March 2024.
According to CEC, heavy machinery was used to uproot over 1500 trees, out of which 1,399 were under the exempted category. Photographic evidence highlighted the area’s rich biodiversity that is now under severe threat, the report said.
According to CEC, the state registered a mortgage deed for the said land with a private party for ₹10,000 crore on March 24 while the tree felling started on March 27. Shockingly CEC found that even a notified lake fell within the area that has been mortgaged.
“The undue haste with which the clearing operations were undertaken by Telangana Industrial Infrastructure Corp, as observed during the site visit, appears to be a calculated move to pre-empt and undermine the process of identification of forest-like areas,” CEC concluded.
While the Telangana government has maintained that the 400 acres of land at Kancha Gachibowli has never been classified as forest land and that its status in revenue records is state government land, the CEC report claims that ownership of the land is disputed and that there exist “historical records and multiple legal and administrative developments to indicate that the land originally vested with the University of Hyderabad under a conditional MoU.”
The bench has now directed the Telangana government to respond to the CEC report within four weeks and has kept the matter for further consideration on May 15.
It also asked the State to examine how wildlife in the area can be protected and directed the Telangana Wildlife Warden to examine and take immediate steps needed to “protect the wildlife affected due to deforestation in 100 acres.”
