Hyderabad: The Supreme Court on Monday stopped tree felling within the eco-sensitive zone around Hyderabad’s KBR National Park while hearing a petition filed by environmental activist Kaajal Maheshwari, who challenged the Telangana High Court’s refusal to grant interim relief in the matter.
A Supreme Court bench of Justice B.V. Nagarathna and Justice Ujjal Bhuyan directed that no trees should be felled within the 25 to 35 metre eco-sensitive zone around the park. The petition was regarding the government’s flyover and underpass works under the H-CITI corridor project. The order is expected to temporarily stall portions of the ongoing works near KBR Park.
Activists and residents were campaigning against the Hyderabad City Innovative and Transformative Infrastructure (H-CITI) project, part of the Strategic Road Development Plan (SRDP), under which a flyover and underpass works were to be built. They described the order as temporary relief. The court issued notice to the authorities and posted the matter to July 27.
The case has its roots in an earlier challenge before the Telangana High Court. The original PIL in the High Court was filed by Kaajal Maheshwari, Jasveen Jairath and Sagar Dhara in 2021, questioning the eco-sensitive zone notification and the lack of a public hearing before the buffer around the park was reduced.
Vata Foundation founding member Uday Krishna, reacting to the Supreme Court order, said the dispute was not only about tree cutting but also about how the eco-sensitive zone was reduced. “There was no public hearing done while declaring the eco-sensitive zone,” he said. “The problem is the eco-sensitive zone was declared without a public hearing.”
Krishna said the eco-sensitive zone functions as a protective layer around the park’s core area and reducing it exposes the forest patch to higher pollution and disturbance. “Some stretches have been reduced from 100 metres to even three metres. That is not enough to protect the core area,” he said, adding that KBR Park supported several species of flora and fauna despite being surrounded by dense urban development.
To recall, the order came days after protests intensified near in Jubilee Hills, where activists alleged that tree-cutting continued at night. Inspection records of the Tree Protection Committee earlier showed that 1,942 trees had been identified along the proposed flyover and underpass corridor. Of these, 1,532 trees were approved for felling, 380 for transplantation and 30 for retention.
“Imposing one-way traffic around the KBR Park would have given them signal-free movement without these flyovers,” Vata Foundation’s Krishna said. “These flyovers will not really solve the problem.” He argued that the city should focus more on improving public transport connectivity and increasing bus and metro capacity instead of repeated road expansion works. “At the end of the day, how many flyovers can you build and how wide can you make a road,” Krishna asked.
Environmental groups have argued that the scale of tree felling around the park would reduce green cover in one of the city’s few remaining urban forest stretches and raised concerns about the survival rate of transplanted trees based on earlier city projects.
The H-CITI plan involves the construction of several structures, flyovers and underpasses, to relieve traffic congestion in the Jubilee Hills area
Floyers :
KBR Park entrance to Road No. 36, Jubilee Hills (JH).
Yousufguda to JH Road No. 45.
KBR Park entrance and Banjara Hills Road No. 2, Mugdha Junction.
Maharaja Agrasen Junction to Road No. 10.
Filmnagar Junction to Road No. 12.
Filmnagar to Maharaja Agrasen Junction.
Jubilee Hills checkpost to Road No. 45/Durgam Cheruvu.
Underpasses:
Road No. 45 to KBR Park entrance junction and Yousufguda.
Jubilee Hills checkpost to Basavatarakam Cancer Hospital.
KBR Park entrance to Banjara Hills Road No. 2.
KBR Park entrance to Maharaja Agrasen Junction.
Indo-American Cancer Hospital Junction to Filmnagar junction.
Maharaja Agrasen Junction to Road No. 45
Filmnagar Junction to Jubilee Hills checkpost junction.
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