Environment – Forests – Felling of trees – Directions issued by Supreme Court on 12.12.1996, to a large number of States including State of Himachal Pradesh, inter alia that there will be no felling of trees in any forest, public or private – However, there were reports that State of Himachal Pradesh had passed orders lifting ban on felling of trees – Supreme Court, while issuing notice to State of Himachal Pradesh on 14.02.2000, also made it clear that such orders, if passed, operation of the same were stayed and no felling of trees be done – Application by State of Himachal Pradesh that it may be permitted to carry out silviculture felling including thinning and other cultural operations in Chil Pine, Khair and broad-leaved forests only – After the application was filed, Central Empowered Committee (CEC) directed to file its report – Held: As per affidavits filed by State of Himachal Pradesh, some amount of silviculture felling is necessary, because if no felling is done then regeneration of trees is not as fast as it should be and once the mature trees die after reaching their maximum life span, there will be very few young trees to replace the old trees – With a view to protect forests, felling of trees in India has been banned by Supreme Court for more than two decades – However, on an experimental basis silviculture felling of trees is permitted to a very limited extent – Such felling should be monitored very carefully to see whether it actually helps in the regeneration of forests or not – In addition to the conditions laid down by CEC for felling of trees, further conditions laid down to be strictly complied with – Principal Chief Conservator of Forests shall be liable to ensure that felling is done strictly in accordance with the orders of Supreme Court – To this limited extent, orders dated 12.12.1996 and 14.02.2000 are modified as far as the State of Himachal Pradesh is concerned.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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