Gurgaon: National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed Haryana chief secretary to file an affidavit within four weeks stating what steps have been taken to bring in the Haryana Tree Preservation Act, 2026. The proposed law will regulate tree felling in areas that are not forest land.Flagging gaps in Haryana’s rules for cutting trees, NGT found that compensatory plantation was not carried out in several cases, even after the tribunal had put an interim system in place to regulate tree felling.A Haryana forest official said the state had already held meetings on the proposed law. “We are in the process of finalising the Act soon,” the official said. The state produced a memo dated Aug 10 showing that a meeting to discuss the proposed law, scheduled for Aug 4, had been moved to Aug 12.The order came on Aug 11 while hearing a petition filed by environmentalist Vaishali Rana and others over alleged illegal tree cutting in urban areas of the district. Rana said trees were being cut without permission, fines for violations were very low and permissions to cut trees were being given without proper checks.Divisional forest officer Surender Dani told the tribunal that “there is no regulation to restrict felling of trees on the private land not covered under Section 4 of Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900.”In simple terms, this means private land that does not come under Section 4 of the Act is not covered by a specific restriction on cutting trees, according to the submission made before the tribunal.The direction comes at a time when Haryana is still relying on the temporary system put in place by the tribunal while its own law is being prepared.The matter will next be heard on Oct 30 before a bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava and expert member Dr Afroz Ahmad.Haryana’s counsel referred to an earlier NGT order of Sept 9, 2025, which had put in place temporary safeguards for tree felling until the state framed its own rules.But the tribunal found that these safeguards were not being followed in several cases. As Haryana does not yet have the comprehensive state law NGT wants, the tribunal created an interim system requiring DFO permission for tree cutting. But NGT has now found that even this interim system was not being fully followed.Looking at records of tree-felling permissions submitted by the forest division, NGT said “even the interim regulatory framework set up by the tribunal by the aforesaid order has not been complied with.”The tribunal said that “the compensatory plantation for permission to cut the tree has not been carried out” in cases where permission to cut trees was given after the Sept 9, 2025 order.The order points to two separate problems. First, there is no specific restriction on tree cutting on private land that is outside Section 4 of PLPA, according to the forest department’s submission. Second, even where permission to cut trees was granted under the temporary system ordered by the tribunal, the required compensatory plantation was not carried out in several cases.The applicants had filed an affidavit on Aug 10, along with photographs which they said showed that illegal tree cutting was continuing. The tribunal asked the state to examine the photographs and respond in its next affidavit.NGT has not made a final finding that all the tree cutting alleged by the applicants was illegal. Its observation on compensatory plantation is based on the tree-felling records submitted by the forest division.The applicants’ lawyer also referred to permissions granted under Section 4 of PLPA and said the permissions placed before the tribunal did not contain conditions.The tribunal examined tree-felling permissions issued by the forest division during the previous year. These records were submitted along with the state’s status report filed on Jan 24, 2026.
