Ranchi: In a bid to safeguard environment, the Jharkhand high court on Thursday stayed the felling of 13,681 trees for the proposed Chatra town bypass road.Hearing a writ petition filed by Suresh Sao which stated that 300 trees belonging to him were proposed to be cut for construction of a bypass of Chatra town, the court of Justice Ananda Sen had sought more details from the govt.The court was informed that 13,681 trees have been proposed to be felled for the bypass road.The high court in its order stated that trees cannot be cut for the sake of development. Quoting it as “developmental disasters”, the judge observed that the time has come to consider travelling a few miles more rather than allowing indiscriminate felling of full grown trees in large scale.“A solution should be found as this is for the future generation. This generation is only the custodian of the environment which has to be passed on to the next generation”, the order read.The high court directed petitioner Suresh Sao to make the ministries of environment, forest and climate change and the road transport and highways as parties in the case who will file their respective affidavits within six weeks.The court further ordered that as an interim measure, considering the large number of trees which have been identified for the project of construction of the bypass of Chatra town, none of the trees would be cut down till further orders of the court. However, it will be open for the agencies to revisit the issue of re-alignment of the road, the court held.
