GURGAON: The Supreme Court this week asked the Haryana government for details of land banks identified for plantation drives and told NHAI to carry out compensatory afforestation in areas within the city after the agency was allowed to widen the Pataudi-Rewari-Gurgaon highway. The government has three months to submit the information. The bench of justices Sanjiv Khanna and SVN Bhatti gave the order on October 16 while hearing a petition by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), which had challenged NGTs ruling restricting the agency to go ahead with work on the highway over concerns that compensatory afforestation wasnt being carried out.In April, SC had allowed NHAI to widen the highway, but a counter-affidavit was filed by activist Vivek Kamboj that the plantation drive should not be carried out far from the project site.Around 12,000 trees have been felled to make way for an extra lane on 43km of the highway, but no saplings have been planted yet. Compensatory afforestation rules require the agency to plant at least 10 saplings for each tree lost to construction.Initially, the government had planned a plantation drive in Panchkula, 300km away from the project site, to make up for the damage caused by chopping trees to widen the highway. At the time, officials had said there werent large tracts of land for compensatory afforestation near the highway.Opposing the Panchkula plan, environmentalists alleged that planting trees far from the project sites would not help restore the areas lost green cover. They then moved the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which directed NHAI to get a fresh clearance from the state government on compensatory afforestation within 10km of the highway."We have noticed that several trees have already been cut, but no more trees are allowed to be cut, without compliance of the order," the tribunal had said last year.The top court in its latest order released on Thursday, said: "State of Haryana will also obtain instructions as to whether the state has notified/identified land banks... where tree plantation can be undertaken. An affidavit to that effect will be filed on behalf of the state of Haryana on or before January 21, 2024." For NHAI, SC said the authority will "obtain instructions on plantation of trees in the land(s) identified in the map filed by respondent no. 1 - Vivek Kamboj in the counter affidavit". TOI had reported earlier this February that Haryana had lagged bahind in using its funds for compensatory afforestation. Almost 45% of the funds (Rs 1,282.6 crore) allotted by the Centre for compensatory afforestation between 2017 and 2022 were not utilised by the state. Environmentalists said that the SC order will push the agency to plant trees. "The creation of land bank and carrying out plantation along the highway will help restore green cover of the district," said Vaishali Rana Chandra, a city-based activist.Experts have, for long, expressed concern about the city losing its green cover. A Forest Survey of India (FSI) study said Gurgaon lost 2.47sqkm of forest cover in just one year (2019-2020). "There is no dearth of degraded land that can be revived. Gurgaon has a land bank and the government can carry out plantation drives easily," said Kamboj.A forest department official said on Thursday they "will act according to the direction of the apex court". NHAIs project director (Rewari) Dheeraj Singh told TOI, "We will take action as per the direction of the Supreme Court."

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