The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation has issued a stop-work notice to the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) over alleged violations of tree protection and replanting conditions attached to its clubhouse construction project in Mumbai.
The civic body’s garden department found during an August inspection that eight of the 43 trees required to be retained at the site were missing. It also found that two of the 12 trees mandated for replanting had not been accounted for, according to the department’s findings reported by the Times of India.
The club had sought permission to remove 25 trees for the project. Under the approved plan, 13 trees could be felled, 12 had to be replanted and 43 had to be retained at the same location. In addition, the club was required to plant 1,232 new trees in lieu of those felled. So far, only 550 of those trees have been planted, the garden department said.
The BMC had previously issued a notice to the RWITC after identifying the missing trees within the area affected by construction work. The club submitted a reply, but civic officials found the explanation unsatisfactory. An non-cognisable complaint was subsequently registered in connection with the missing trees.
An RWITC official disputed the civic action, saying the club was not aware of the stop-work notice and that construction work at the site was continuing. The official said some trees had fallen during the monsoon and that the club had already provided an explanation to the civic body. The official also said the work had not been affected by the notice.
The case places the focus on how permissions issued under Mumbai’s tree protection framework are monitored after construction begins. The approved conditions distinguish between trees that may be felled, trees that must be retained and trees that must be replanted or newly planted. The BMC’s inspection indicates that the dispute concerns compliance across all three categories, rather than only the original tree-felling permission.
Former IPS officer and lawyer Y P Singh said the action could establish a precedent, while alleging that other private construction projects had also violated conditions concerning tree protection and plantation. He referred to cases involving large building projects and basement excavations in which trees along public roads had allegedly died. Those wider allegations were not independently established in the supplied report.
The BMC’s stop-work notice is now the immediate enforcement measure in the RWITC case. The club’s explanation regarding trees that it says fell during the monsoon, along with the status of the required replacement plantation, remains part of the dispute between the project and the civic authority.
