The Allahabad High Court, on August 29, 2017, expressed strong dissatisfaction over the Uttar Pradesh government’s offer of ‘adequate compensation’ to a Noida resident, on whose land thousands of trees are likely to be felled, for a proposed food park of Ramdev’s Patanjali Yog Sansthan.
A division bench, comprising justices Tarun Agarwala and Ashok Kumar, remarked that “The government cannot justify its act of cutting down of trees, on the basis that it will give adequate compensation to an affected individual. Environment is for the whole society. The government can compensate an individual but how will it compensate the entire society?” the court asked, while hearing a petition filed by Asaf of Gautam Buddh Nagar district, who challenged the allotment of 4,500 acres of land to the Sansthan.
See also: Petition in HC challenging land allotment to Patanjali in Noida
The petitioner alleged that he had been granted a 30-year lease for 200 bighas of land, for plantation of trees and the state government had now allotted the same for the proposed food park, which was ‘illegal’. The petitioner further alleged that about 6,000 trees planted on the land leased out to him, were likely to be cut down for the food park, inflicting a heavy damage to the environment. The court has deferred further hearing on the matter till August 30, 2017.
