HC allows felling of 20,000 trees for Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project

The Bombay High Court on Friday permitted the National High Speed Rail Corporation (NHSRCL) to cut around 20,000 mangrove trees in the city and neighbouring districts of Palghar and Thane for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

A division bench of Chief Justice Dipankar Datta and Justice Abhay Ahuja allowed the plea filed by the NHSRCL seeking permission to cut the mangrove trees.

As per a 2018 order of the high court, there exists a "total freeze" on the destruction of mangroves across the state and permission has to be sought from the high court each time an authority wishes to fell mangroves for any public project.

As per the said order, a 50 m buffer zone must be created around the area that hosts the mangroves and no construction activity or dumping of debris can be permitted within this buffer zone.

In its petition filed in 2020, the NHSRCL had assured the court it would plant five times the total mangrove trees that were earlier proposed to be felled and the number wo