SUNDAY, MAY 12, 2024
Team Herald
PORVORIM: The Bombay High Court at Goa on Tuesday observed that the Siolim tree-cutting case is getting increasingly curious.
The Court expressed this after the State government surprisingly submitted that the “Public Works Department (PWD) is not involved in the road widening project.” That begs the question, then who is behind the Siolim tree felling?
When the issue of who is behind the tree felling came up, the petitioner mentioned that some social media videos were in circulation, which mentioned that the elected representatives were involved in this decision. The court asked the petitioner to produce the relevant videos.
The tree-cutting contractor, too, failed to update the Court after his lawyer informed the bench that the contractor was in the hospital.
The court observed some shadows at play here and prima facie it looks like the tree cutter is being made the scapegoat.
In a remark made in open court Justice Mahesh Sonak reprimanded the act of tree cutting saying that "one cannot go cutting trees like this. They have a life," he said.
"We accept that trees have been cut but we have to preserve whatever is left," Justice Menezes said, adding that this case should be taken as a case study.
The Court has asked the State to clarify the issue from the PWD engineers as to who is widening the road and who gave the contract to the tree cutter. The court further wanted to know what the value of the trees was. The matter has been kept for hearing on Wednesday.
