Overview
- The National Green Tribunal ordered an immediate pause on cutting until the January 8 hearing, with only non–tree-cutting works allowed to proceed.
- Citizens staged Chipko-style demonstrations along the 16-km corridor, urging a redesign that expands to six lanes instead of ten.
- The planned upgrade would require removing about 7,871 trees, and reports say roughly 1,500 mature trees have already been felled.
- Residents allege cutting continued until December 24 despite the stay, while NHAI and the Bhopal Municipal Corporation offered differing dates for when work stopped.
- NHAI told the tribunal it will plant about 81,000 saplings and expects full ecological compensation by 2029, as activists contest BMC’s single-day approval for nearly 8,000 removals and prepare a fresh objection.