The National Green Tribunal has ordered the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) to plant at least 10,000 trees in Uttarakhand within a month as compensation for the extensive tree felling that took place during the construction of a road stretching from Simli to Gwaldam. This directive came in response to a petition presented to the main bank of the NGT, chaired by Judge Prakash Shrivastava, which alleged violations of environmental standards by the BRO during road construction in the ecologically sensitive and sensitive mountains of Chamoli district, Uttarakhand.

By September 2022, the NGT had established a joint committee consisting of representatives from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC), BRO, Uttarakhand State Pollution Control Board (PCB), the District Magistrate and the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Chamoli. Their mandate was to verify the actual situation and take appropriate corrective action in response to the violations of environmental standards.

The NGT stressed that the BRO should carry out compensatory tree planting to compensate for the trees removed during road construction and take the necessary measures to prevent landslides and excesses. The bank instructed the BRO to plant at least 10,000 trees within a month in collaboration with the respective Divisional Forest Officer (DFO). The DFO Chamoli was charged with monitoring the survival of the newly planted trees for three months and reporting progress to the NGT.

In addition, the court instructed the DFO to ensure that part of the plantation is carried out in a way that minimizes the risk of landslides, while the district magistrate was tasked with ensuring that the BRO builds protective structures to prevent landslides. The district magistrate was also required to provide a report on the number of landslides during the interim period and describe the measures taken to prevent them.