The Supreme Court on Wednesday (August 13, 2025) gave the Telangana government six weeks to present a good proposal for the overall revival of the Kancha Gachibovali forest site and said that the state government would have to re -plant the cut trees. Chief Justice Bhushan Ramakrishna Gavai and Justice K.K. The bench of Vinod Chandran said that the forest area should be restored.
The Supreme Court said that it is not against development, but the environment should be protected. The bench postponed the hearing of the case for six weeks later, saying, ‘The court has been saying that we are not against development from time to time, but this should be sustainable development. While doing development related activities, the interests of the environment and wildlife should be taken care of and the measures for compensation should be ensured. If the government brings such a proposal, we will welcome it.
On behalf of the Telangana government, Senior Advocate Abhishek Singhvi said that the state government is overall considering the entire proposal, in which efforts are being made to balance the environment and the interests of wildlife with development works. The Supreme Court had said on 15 May that the harvesting of trees near Hyderabad University appears to be ‘pre -planned’ prima facie. The court had asked the Telangana government to restore it, otherwise its officers may be jailed.
The Chief Justice had said that it is up to the government to restore the forest or send his officers to jail. Taking automatic cognizance of the activities of deforestation in the Kancha Gachibovali forest area, the Supreme Court on April 3 ordered to maintain the status quo till further orders.
The Supreme Court had reprimanded the Telangana government on 16 April for hasty action for the harvesting of trees and directed that if it wanted its Chief Secretary to ‘protect from any serious action, then she would have to present a specific scheme to restore 100 acres of forestless land.