The Madras High Court in the case E Anna Yesudhas v The District Collector observed and has emphasized that the State must take steps for trees in this age of climate change, wherein the court stated that the felling of trees for the construction of the building was not a wise decision.
The court further stated that at this age of the climate change, the accent has to be on growing green cover trees and when there being several grown trees, the same would not be a wise thing to cut them down for the sake of constructing a building.
The bench headed by Justice GR Swaminathan of the Madurai bench was hearing the present plea moved by Anna Yesudhas, wherein it challenged the decision of Kanyakumari District Authorities to cut down the trees in order to facilitate the construction of a new Panchayat building.
It has been noted by the court in the said case that the petitioner in the plea had sent a representation to the Kanyakumari District Collector which is being signed by a number of local residents and had elicited a response from the Revenue Divisional Officer. Therefore, the RDO in the case had called upon the jurisdictional Block Development Officer as well as the Tahsildar in order to submit a representation and that the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board was also being called for submitting the report.
Further, the court in the case noted that since the said authorities were already seized of the matter and no adverse decision had been taken, the same being not appropriate for the court in order to interfere at such a stage.
Accordingly, the court observed and has directed the District Collector to take a call on the matter and communicate the decision taken to the petitioner in plea before embarking on the construction of the Panchayat building
The counsel, Mr.M.Pandiarajan appeared for the petitioner.
The counsel, Mr.G.Suriyananth, Additional Government Pleader represented the respondent.
