Guwahati: The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment, imposed a hefty fine of Rs 1 lakh per tree, totaling Rs 4.54 crore, on a man who illegally cut 454 trees in the protected Mathura-Vrindavan area.
Shiv Shankar Agarwal had unlawfully cut down 454 trees on private land in Mathura-Vrindavan’s Dalmia Farms, out of which 32 were located on a roadside strip of protected forest land.
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The bench, led by Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, rejected any leniency in this case, despite Agarwal admitting his error and seeking a reduction in the fine.
The Supreme Court has said that cutting a large number of trees is worse than killing human beings.
The top court stated that it would take at least 100 years for these trees to grow back.
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“There should be no mercy in environmental cases. Felling a large number of trees is worse than killing a human,” the bench said.The defense argued that the offender admitted his mistake and pleaded for a reduction in the fine, but the court rejected the request, stating that tree-cutting is a serious environmental offense.
During the hearing, the court also revoked its December 2019 order, which had allowed the cutting of trees on non-forest lands within the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ).
The fine of Rs 1 lakh per tree was set after considering the recommendations of the Central Empowered Committee (CEC), which had investigated the incident.
SC also authorized Agarwal to plant trees at a nearby location as part of his restitution.