CHANDIGARH, Aug. 28 -- The Punjab forest department has told the National Green Tribunal (NGT) that it has no jurisdiction to regulate or penalise the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for cutting trees on land acquired by it, and has contended that there is no statutory requirement for compensatory afforestation on such land.

The stand comes in a case concerning the felling of plants during construction of a vehicular underpass on the Pathankot-Amritsar stretch of NH-54, where questions have already been raised before the tribunal over the adequacy of the forest department's earlier data on the trees that were cut.

The matter was brought before the NGT by Dinesh Gupta in 2024 and relates to the felling of plants along the NH-...