Judgment of the NGT from the hearing on 14th March. Letter addressed to the community by the WC regarding the judgment :
Dear Community,
Please find here the judgment from the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on the Miscellaneous Application filed by 2 residents, which was heard in Chennai on Tuesday, 14th of March.
The main points are:
• The Miscellaneous Application (MA) asked the NGT to give a stay/interim relief on tree cutting on the Crown because the Joint Committee (JC) didn’t inspect and survey the whole Crown area and therefore their report was incomplete.
• Although the original order allowed Crown Road work to continue without cutting any trees or in areas where there are no trees, the NGT acknowledged the concern of the 2 residents that trees are being cut outside the Crown Road areas and beyond the recommendation of the Joint Committee of the NGT.
• It was officially put on record by the NGT that a lawyer for the Auroville Foundation (represented by the Secretary) stated that no work would happen in violation of the Joint Committee’s report.
• In summary, in this first hearing the NGT has clearly reminded the AVFO to respect the original ruling and the existing Joint Committee report, so only the marked and listed trees within the designated 9.1m in Darkali can be cut.
• A next hearing is scheduled for the 5th of April to decide whether or not to reconvene the Joint Committee and order them to complete the survey of trees and water bodies on the planned Crown trajectory.
We are grateful to the Hon’ble NGT for what seems to us to be a fair order and we trust this will continue.
This reinforces the need for all actions on the proposed Crown way to be documented so that any violations of the Joint Committee report and the NGT ruling to be brought to the attention of the court before the hearing scheduled for the 5th of April.
If you have any questions please write to us or come to our Open House on Tuesdays between 10 and 12.
Faithfully,
Your Working Committee
Aravinda, Bharathy, Chali, Hemant, Mael, Sauro, Valli