Nainital, April 2 The Uttarakhand High Court directed the Mussoorie municipality not to cut down any trees without obtaining the necessary permission from the forest department, and asked the state government to file their responses in this matter.
A division bench of Chief Justice Manoj Kumar Gupta and Justice Subhash Upadhyay was hearing a petition on Wednesday regarding the felling of some Oak trees in a notified forest area in Mussoorie's Husain Ganj.
This was being done as part of a road widening project by the municipality, said the petitioner, Pravesh Singh Rana. The court directed all parties to file their responses within three weeks.
The government informed the court that during an inspection conducted by the Mussoorie forest range officer on March 13, it was discovered that four Oak trees and three other trees had been illegally felled without obtaining valid permission from the competent authority.
Charges have been issued against the concerned individuals, cases are pending against them, and an investigation is currently underway, it said.
The municipality informed the court that road widening has been halted pending the completion of the investigation into the matter.
The court directed that no trees shall be cut down without obtaining permission from the competent authority. The next date of hearing for the case has been fixed for April 27.