Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Government agencies in Madhya Pradesh appear to have found a loophole in rules to carry out tree cutting.
In the absence of a formal tree transplantation policy, several departments have begun conducting ‘transplantation drives’, allegedly destroying hundreds of trees in the process.
It appears they have found a loophole to bypass the newly formed nine-member Central Empowered Committee (CEC) set up under National Green Tribunal (NGT) directives to regulate large-scale tree felling.
Instead of obtaining permission to cut more than 400 trees, officials in Raisen district allegedly destroyed them on the pretext of ‘transplantation’, even though no official policy for tree transplantation exists in the state.
The controversy comes amid the ongoing NGT case concerning the felling of over 12,000 trees along the Ratnagiri–Ayodhya Bypass by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). In May 2025, the NGT’s Central Zone directed the formation of a high-level committee to curb indiscriminate tree felling.
Accordingly, in September 2025, a nine-member CEC was constituted under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary (urban development and housing) Sanjay Dubey. The committee’s mandate includes granting permissions for cutting more than 25 trees in Madhya Pradesh, with rules requiring geo-tagging, five-year sapling monitoring and assessment of oxygen loss for each felled tree.
However, these rules make no mention of tree transplantation or relocation– a gap that the authorities allegedly exploited. In June 2025, the sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) of Raipura granted permission for the ‘transplantation’ of 448 trees obstructing road construction on the Bhourgarh–Mandideep route under the Goharganj forest division.
The order said that the transplantation process would be jointly supervised by the Goharganj forest department and the rural engineering services department. It also mandated compensatory plantation of twice the number of trees removed, in nearby areas.
Ground reality of transplanted trees
When the Bhopal Citizens’ Forum inspected the site at Bangrasia–Bhojpur road, convener Surendra Tiwari, archaeology expert Asit Chandra and Kamal Rathi reported that most of the transplanted trees had not survived. They further noted poor arrangements for protecting newly planted saplings.
Transplantation policy missing in MP
RTI activist Nitin Saxena argued that this misuse stemmed from the absence of a defined transplantation framework in Madhya Pradesh. While states like Delhi, Telangana and Gujarat have clear transplantation policies and machinery for relocation, MP lacks the infrastructure and expertise for such large-scale operations.
Delhi’s 2020 Tree Transplantation Policy, for instance, mandates 80% survival of transplanted trees, while Gujarat reports up to 85% success for select species when done in appropriate seasons.
‘No provision for transplantation’
Attempts to contact secretary member of the CEC and commissioner of the directorate of urban administration and development, Sanket S. Bhondve, were unsuccessful, but a member of the CEC, speaking to the Free Press on condition of
anonymity, confirmed that no provision for transplantation existed in the committee’s rules, nor did the state have any official policy governing it.
