The monetary value of a tree is ₹74,500 multiplied by its age: SC appointed committee

The true value of a tree, with 100 years of its lifespan remaining, would be ₹74,500, taking into account it's benefits to nature and mankind, including the cost of oxygen it would emit to the atmosphere, a committee set up by CJI informed the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

A bench headed by CJI SA Bobde had set up a committee in February to evaluate the true value of a tree when a PIL had challenged the West Bengal government's decision to cut 356 trees to construct five railway overbridges (ROBs) costing Rs 500 crore on a 59-km stretch on NH-112 (part of NH-35). The committee comprised Soham Pandya, B K Maji, Niranjita Mitra, N K Mukarji and Sunita Narain.

This project is part of the Centre's 'Setu Bharatmala' programme, which aims to make national highways free of all railway crossings by constructing 208 railway over and underbridges in 19 states at a cost of Rs 20,800 crore. The Centre has sanctioned Rs 2,294 crore to West Bengal for 22 ROBs and RUBs on NH-112.

The stretch is to be part of the government's 'Go East' policy, which aims to integrate the Indian road network with Bangladesh and Myanmar.

The committee informed that 50 trees had already been cut, but the remaining 306, many of which hold heritage value, are evaluated at ₹220 crores. Further, it would require the cutting down 4,036 trees for the widening of the road, valued at ₹3,000 crores. But if the real loss to the environment and humanity over the years were to be taken into account, the value of these 4,000 trees would amount to ₹30,000 crores.

According to the report filed in February last year but made public on Wednesday, a tree is worth ₹74,500 a year. Out of this, the cost of oxygen alone is ₹45,000, followed by cost of biofertilisers, which are worth ₹20,000, and then adding costs of micronutrients and compost.

The committee suggested that in case trees must be removed, the first endeavour should be to relocate them using modern technologies. It added that planting five saplings for cutting down one tree was not good enough since a 100-year-old tree cannot be equated with a few fresh saplings. It recommended that for a tree with small crown size, 10 saplings should be planted; 25 saplings for a tree with medium crown size; and 50 saplings for a tree with large crown size.

The Supreme Court has not accepted the report yet, and asked for responses from the central government, West Bengal government and an NGO involved in the case.“The committee’s recommendation will make every government go bankrupt. So, we need to fine tune a few suggestions,” the court said on Wednesday.

Source: thelogicalindian.com, timesofindia.com, hindustantimes.com

Written by Siddhant Sharma