Pasumai Thayagam Foundation, a non-governmental organisation led by Sowmiya Anbumani, has filed a public interest litigation petition in the Madras High Court to restrain Southern Railway from felling trees, without following Supreme guidelines, for the expansion of Egmore Railway Station in Chennai.
The PIL petition is expected to be listed for admission before the first Division Bench of Chief Justice S.V. Gangapurwala and Justice P.D. Audikesavalu on June 14 as the judges acceded to a request made by petitioner’s advocate K. Balu for an early hearing of the matter considering the urgency involved.
In its affidavit, the NGO claimed that nearly 200 trees had been felled for the expansion of the Egmore railway station and there was a plan to fell 400 more. It feared that such mass felling would cause great harm to the environment in the city.
The litigant said that a huge number of trees and even major parks were destroyed during the construction the Chennai Metrol Rail Phase I project and the expansion of the railway station sounded the death knell to hundreds of trees.
The NGO said that apart from the harm caused to the people, even birds would be deprived of their perching sites due to felling of trees. It claimed that the Railways was not following the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in 2022 while dealing with a case related to Delhi Metro Rail.
The petitioner urged the court to restrain Southern Railway from felling the trees and issue a consequential direction to the State government to frame guidelines, on the lines of the Supreme Court verdict, to protect the trees, not only in Chennai but across the State.
