Trees cut for development: what was planted in return withered away, plant care forgotten; NGT seeks a report on 5 years.

The Bhopal bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has expressed displeasure over the large number of saplings planted in lieu of cutting down thousands of trees for development works, as a significant portion of these saplings have withered. The case was argued by lawyer Harpreet Gupta in Nitin Saxena vs National Highways Authority of India and others. On September 7, a bench comprising judicial member Justice Shiv Kumar Singh and expert member Sudhir Kumar Chaturvedi noted that the saplings planted by the Bhopal Municipal Corporation and the Environment Forestry Board had withered significantly.