Mangaluru : The Chennai Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Wednesday cleared that the felling of 478 trees on 5.89 acres of land for the construction of district office complex in Padil and said that trees could be felled only after taking requisite permission from the competent authority.

Advocate-activist Suma R. Nayak had approached the tribunal challenging the government’s decision to hand over land belonging to the Karnataka State Forest Industries’ Corporation for the complex.

Ms. Nayak had argued that the land comprises 478 trees, birds and animals of different species.

She had approached the tribunal after the Karnataka High Court rejected a public interest writ petition filed by Daniel Tauro, Ms. Nayak and Shawn F. Fernandez on December 12, 2015.

The court had said that construction was proposed on the government land for public purpose and also held that the government did not exceed jurisdiction illegally in granting the permission.

The tribunal said that the government could approach the competent authority seeking permission to fell the trees.

Ms. Nayak told that trees could not be cut until land classification is done and permission is granted. Thus, the administration is completely restrained from going ahead with the project till the permission is obtained.

Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim interpreted the order as one giving green signal to the project, subject to approval from the competent authority. District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai, who is also the Minister for Forests, Environment and Ecology, on Tuesday said that there was no going back from the proposal, for which the government had already released Rs. 41 crore.

An advocate, conversant with the issue, said that the tribunal’s order would mean that the competent authority (a senior official from the Forest Department) would have first to decide whether the land is a deemed forest or not. If the answer is in the positive, permission has to be obtained from the Union Ministry of Environment and Forest under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980; and if it is in the negative, the State government can grant the permission.