605 trees cut for a Khandwa colony had panchayat permits, NGT finds; pollution consent awaited

A newspaper report of hundreds of trees axed and a hillside dug up for a housing colony on Omkareshwar Road led the Green Tribunal to act on its own. A joint committee traced every tree to a Gram Panchayat permission. The Bhopal bench closed the case and gave the State Pollution Control Board 30 days to decide the colony consent application.

The National Green Tribunal's Central Zone Bench at Bhopal has closed a suo motu case over trees felled for a housing colony on a hillside in Khandwa, after a joint committee reported that all 605 trees were cut with Gram Panchayat permission. The order is dated 3 November 2026.

One item is still open. The colony has not yet received its consent under the Water and Air Acts, and the tribunal has given the State Pollution Control Board 30 days to decide the application.

The bench of Justice Sheo Kumar Singh, Judicial Member, and Sudhir Kumar Chaturvedi, Expert Member, heard the matter on 3 November.

A hillside, machines and a newspaper report

The tribunal took up the matter on a report in the Dainik Bhaskar. It described hundreds of trees cut down for a colony in the Kothi area on Omkareshwar Road, Khandwa. Machines were said to be excavating the hillside continuously and damaging the natural beauty of a pilgrimage site.

A board at the excavation site carried the name Om Meadows Prestige Residency. The report alleged that the construction had no permission from the Real Estate Regulatory Authority (RERA), no environmental clearance and no permission from the competent municipal authority.

On 9 September 2026 the tribunal constituted a joint committee. It had one representative each from the Collector of Khandwa, the Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) of Khandwa and the State Pollution Control Board. The committee was told to visit the site and file a factual and action taken report within six weeks, with the Board as nodal agency.

The committee's count: 605 trees, seven landowners

The committee inspected the site on 2 October 2026. It found soil being excavated for levelling. It also found that the project was not called Om Meadows Prestige Residency, as reported, but Om Meadows Phase-I and Phase-II.

The DFO of Punasa told the committee in a letter of 7 October 2026 that Gram Panchayat Kothi, in Tehsil Punasa, had allowed seven landowners to cut 605 trees on their private land. All seven were residents of Barwaha in Khargone district. After felling, the timber was taken to the Sanawad depot under the applicable rules.

The report tabulated the trees by species. There were 276 sagaon, 15 neem and 10 babool, with 304 trees of other species. One landowner accounted for 302 of the 605, on a plot of 0.810 hectare.

The other six landowners cut between 16 and 89 trees each. Six of the seven plots measured 0.810 hectare, and the remaining one measured 1.620 hectares.

How a panchayat came to permit felling

The DFO's letter relied on a Madhya Pradesh Gazette notification of 13 January 2023. It amended the Madhya Pradesh Land Revenue Code (Miscellaneous) Rules, 2020, which had been published on 10 June 2022, in exercise of powers under Sections 258, 240 and 241 of the Code.

After that amendment, the letter said, a Gram Panchayat was empowered to permit the cutting of trees standing on private land on the report of the local Patwari. Gram Panchayat Kothi granted permission for the 605 trees recorded in the landowners' Khasra records.

The colony's own papers

The committee also set out the colony's other approvals. The project proponent applied online for registration under the RERA Act on 20 June 2019. The Town and Country Planning Department, Khandwa, granted permission for the residential development by two letters, both dated 5 March 2026.

Counsel for the project proponent told the bench that all necessary permissions had been taken and that its application for consent conditions was pending before the State Pollution Control Board. Counsel for the Board said it would decide that application in accordance with law within a short time.

What the bench accepted

The bench examined the committee's report and found that the Madhya Pradesh land revenue provisions of 1959 had been complied with. The trees belonged to private individuals, it noted, and the permissions from RERA and town and country planning had been taken. On the felling itself, it recorded:

"necessary permission for cutting of trees has been taken from the competent authority" (para 9)

On RERA, the committee's report records the online application of 20 June 2019, while the bench's finding says the RERA permission has been taken. The order records no stay or restraint on the excavation, and its findings do not separately address the reported damage to the hillside.

Order

Original Application No. 198 of 2026 (CZ) was disposed of. The project proponent must take the necessary consent conditions under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act and the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, according to law.

The State Pollution Control Board was directed to proceed with the pending application and decide it within 30 days.