High court extends stay on notification allowing felling 53 species of trees

Bhopal/Jabalpur: MP high court further extended stay on the operation of state government's notification putting 53 species of trees out of the ambit of "Paragaman Van Upaj Niyam-2000" and thereby allowing people to cut them and transport it to the sawmills with only the permission of gram panchayats. A bench headed by Chief Justice R V Malimath also asked for transfer of a similar petition from Indore bench of MP high court to Jabalpur.
The petitioner Vivek Sharma said that the state government through a notification issued on September 24, 2015, put 53 species of trees including bargad (banyan), pipal (sacred fig) and jamun (black plum) out of the purview of " Paragaman Van Upaj Niyam-2000" and allowed cutting of these trees after obtaining the permission of gram panchayat. The rule of mandatory permission of forest department for the purpose was scrapped. Following this, tree felling started in large numbers, he contended. He said tree felling on a large scale would lead to environmental imbalance and it should not be allowed,
The MP high court had stayed the operation of the notification in September 2019. In the previous hearing of the case, four applications were moved for vacation of stay. The bench of Chief Justice R V Malimath and Justice Vishal Dhagat was also told that PIL on the issue is pending in Indore bench of high court as well.