New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the forest department to answ-er if people need permission from the tree author-ity to remove trees uprooted in thunderstorms or branches hanging dangerously.The court asked this question after a PIL claimed the violation of a 2023 court ruling that no pruning or re-moval of branches of any girth can happen without the permission of the tree authority/officer.The public interest litigation claimed the standard operating procedure framed last year by the city’s forest department has given free run to indiscriminate felling.“Our attention has been drawn by the petitioner to clause 2 of the SOP to deal with pruning of trees under the Delhi Protection of Trees Act,” a bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tejas Karia said. It noted that, according to the rules, no permission will be required of the tree officer for light pruning or general tending where branches are of specific girth.When the petitioner argued that the clause is “incongruous” with the DPT Act as also the high court verdict of 2023, the bench pointed out the possible reasons why it may have been incorporated in the SOP.“Suppose there is a thunderstorm and, as a result, a tree gets felled, won’t it pose a danger to the public? Will such a situation also require permission from the tree officer? We are also aware of these accidents that take place due to hanging branches every day,” the bench observed.
