Supreme Court restrains tree felling in Hyderabad’s KBR National Park

The Supreme Court has restrained tree felling in the eco-sensitive zone of Hyderabad’s KBR National Park and issued notices to the Centre and Telangana government. The plea challenges reduction of the buffer zone, citing environmental concerns linked to infrastructure expansion plans

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday restrained authorities from cutting trees in the eco-sensitive zone of Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) National Park in Hyderabad.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan said there should be no tree felling within the 25-35 metre eco-sensitive zone around the park.

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The top court issued a notice to the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Telangana government and others while seeking their replies on the plea filed by activist Kaajal Maheshwari.

The top court was hearing a plea filed by Maheshwari challenging an order of the Telangana High Court that refused to grant interim relief.

Maheshwari had moved a plea before the high court challenging the reduction of the eco-sensitive zone around KBR National Park to a width ranging from 3 metres to 29.8 metres.

The plea contended that such a narrow buffer would defeat the very purpose of an ESZ as a “shock absorber” for a protected area.

In 2015, the State government proposed to develop six junctions around the national park by building multi-level flyovers under the Strategic Road Development Plan. This required the chopping of more than 1,300 trees for widening of roads.

As part of the project, it had proposed a modification of the eco-sensitive zone and finalised reduction of the park’s walkway to between 3 and 29.8 metres from the present 25 to 35 metres from its boundary.