Last year in March the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India passed a landmark judgement regarding illegal felling of trees. The Apex Court said that cutting a large number of trees was worse than killing human beings. The court imposed a penalty of Rs 1 lakh for each illegally cut tree. The Supreme Court bench of Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan made these observations while rejecting the plea of a man who had cut down 454 trees in the protected Taj Trapezium Zone. “There should be no mercy in the environmental case. Felling a large number of trees is worse than killing a human,” the bench said. The top court said it will take at least 100 years minimum to regenerate or recreate the green cover created by 454 trees which were blatantly cut without permission. The apex court accepted the report of the central empowered committee (CEC), which recommended a fine of Rs 1 lakh per tree for cutting 454 trees in Dalmia Farms in Mathura-Vrindavan by one Shiv Shankar Agarwal. 

Axing of 3500 apple plants  On the intervening night of 29th and 30th May 2026 when people across Kashmir valley were busy with Bakar Eid celebrations,  around 3500 High Density Italian apple plants were cut down in Rangeen Kultreh village of Chadoora sub division in central Kashmir’s Budgam district. This plantation was done on around 20 to 30 kanals of land by some local educated youth who wanted to make a career in the horticulture sector. In addition to it a vast Karewa land which was arid and dry with almond orchards in the past has also been converted into high density apple farms. The culprits chose to target a particular family as they had been exposing illegal earth mining, and sand mining in........

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