People may soon need oxygen cylinders if green cover keeps shrinking: Bombay HC

The Bombay High Court on Tuesday expressed concern over Mumbai's shrinking green cover and diminishing mangroves, warning that the day may not be far when people are forced to carry "oxygen cylinders to take oxygen shots".

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Ravindra Ghuge and Justice Gautam Ankhad made the observation while hearing a plea seeking permission to fell 847 mangrove trees for a transmission line linked to the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project.

The petition was filed by the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Ltd (MSETCL), which plans to lay a 132 KV transmission line from Dahanu to Ambesari in Palghar district.

The court said the larger concern was not merely the cutting of mangroves but whether authorities were ensuring that trees planted as compensatory afforestation actually survived.

"The problem is that you all do not replant. The plants which you then plant have started dying. You only create a picture that you have planted something. You don't turn around and see whether it is alive after you have planted it," the bench said.

The court also questioned plans to carry out compensatory afforestation outside the affected region, observing that plantations could not simply be undertaken in areas that already had substantial tree cover.

"It is a loss for this area. As it is, Bombay has so little oxygen that the day will not be far when people will carry oxygen cylinders to take oxygen shots," the court remarked.

Advocate General Milind Sathe, appearing for the Maharashtra government, told the bench that the state would identify degraded forest land in the same region instead of carrying out compensatory plantation elsewhere.

"We will identify degraded forest land. But that will take time," Sathe said.

According to MSETCL's plea, the proposed 13.06-km transmission line requires the diversion of 3.35 hectares of forest land, including 1.9656 hectares of mangrove forest.

The company said three alternative alignments had been examined before the final route was selected to minimise the impact on forests and other ecologically sensitive areas.

MSETCL also stressed the urgency of the project, saying the transmission line was required ahead of the scheduled inauguration of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train project by the Prime Minister in October.

Under a 2018 Bombay High Court judgment, there is a complete freeze on the destruction of mangroves without the court's approval. Public infrastructure projects requiring the felling of mangroves must therefore seek prior permission from the High Court.

The bench reserved its order on MSETCL's plea.