The Madras High Court on Thursday told a government eye hospital in Egmore not to fell 75 trees earmarked for clearing due to construction. According to reports, the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology and Government Ophthalmic Hospital is undertaking the construction of a new building in its premises for which it proposes to cut down around 75 trees.
According to one report in the Times of India, a division Bench of Justices Vineet Kothari and C Saravanan asked Additional Advocate General Narmadha Sampath to file a status report on the construction. The court asked the government to explore options for construction that did not involve clearing the trees or whether the trees could be translocated within the campus.
The court restrained the government hospital from cutting or felling the trees from their place of growth until December 2 without permission from the court. The hospital has been asked to submit documents with regard to whether it had obtained all the necessary permissions for the construction.
The Madras High Court was hearing a PIL filed by Captain PB Narayanan, a resident of Pantheon Road close to where the eye hospital is located. According to one report in The Hindu, Narayanan had argued that the trees were home to birds such as black kites and parakeets. The tree cover also helps recharge the ground water in the area.
He suggested that the proposed new building could in fact be constructed by demolishing the existing blocks on campus that lie dilapidated. Pointing out that Cyclone Vardah, the storm that hit Chennai in 2016, had destroyed much tree cover in the city, the PIL said that the 4-acre land was an important part of the city’s biodiversity. Moreover, on translocation, Narayanan had reasoned in his petition that fully-grown trees would not survive it.
Source: The News Minute