MUMBAI, Aug. 5 -- The Bombay High Court on Tuesday allowed the Maharashtra State Electricity Transmission Company Limited (MSETCL) to fell 847 mangroves and 196 other trees and divert 3.3561 hectares of forest land for construction of a high voltage overhead transmission line from Dahanu to Ambesarai for the Mumbai-Ahmedabad High Speed Rail Corridor, also known as the bullet train project. The division bench of acting chief justice Ravindra Ghuge and justice Gautam Ankhad allowed the MSETCL's plea considering that the transmission line and the Ambeserai traction sub-station were integral to the high speed rail corridor, a project of national importance, and the proposal for diversion of mangroves and felling of trees had been scrutinised and approved by authorities, after determination by expert bodies. MSETCL had approached the high court in pursuance with its September 2018 order on a public interest litigation filed by the Bombay Environmental Action Group (BEAG), prohibiting all non-forest activities in and around mangroves without the court's prior permission. The company informed the court that all statutory and development permissions required for laying down the 132 kV (kilo volt) transmission line had been obtained and it had agreed to undertake compensatory afforestation by planting 26,664 mangrove saplings over 6 hectares and 7,457 other trees over 6.7122 hectares of degraded forest land in Sangola tehsil of Solapur district, identified by the forest department. While allowing the MSETCL's plea, the court took serious note of the objection raised by the BEAG's counsel to compensatory afforestation in Solapur district, around 500 km away from the affected area. "Plantation undertaken hundreds of kilometres away may satisfy a statistical requirement, but fails to restore the environmental benefits of the affected locality," it said. The court directed the chief secretary to create land banks within four weeks. It also clarified that this time, it had allowed compensatory afforestation at a far off place by way of exception, but henceforth such proposals for afforestation at far off places would not be accepted by the court....