NICE told not to cut trees

NICE told not to cut trees
Deccan Herald

The Karnataka High Court has directed the Nandi Infrastructure Corridor Enterprises Limited not to cut until further order, any teak tree on the 1.2 acre of land acquired for the Bangalore Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project, at Talghattapura village near Bangalore.

Justice Ajit J Gunjal passed the interim order to maintain status quo while hearing a petition filed by Ms Ratna Nagaraj complaining that the NICE and the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board had “unnecessarily” cut about 40 of the 100 teak trees (of 12 year old). The petitioner wanted the trees to be preserved.

The KIADB had acquired 1.2 acres of land of the 4.2 acres of land from the petitioner. There are about 400 teak trees on the 4.2 acres of land. The petitioner claimed that only a small portion of the acquired land was used for constructing an interchange. Pointing out that there was necessity to cut only two teak trees for constructing the interchange, the petitioner also alleged that the KIADB in its map of the acquired portion of the land had not shown the presence of teak trees, which would indicate that land on which teak trees were planted was not part of the acquired land.