Hyderabad, May 18 -- The Supreme Court on Monday, May 18, stayed the felling of trees in the eco-sensitive zone surrounding Kasu Brahmananda Reddy (KBR) National Park in Hyderabad, ordering that no trees be cut within the 25 to 35 metres buffer around the protected urban forest, amid mounting protests from concerned citizens who had been opposing the shrinking of the green cover.

A bench of Justices BV Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan passed the interim direction while issuing notice on a special leave petition challenging the Telangana government's decision to sharply reduce the width of the eco-sensitive zone to accommodate road infrastructure projects.

The petition, filed by Kaajal Maheshwari, challenged the Ministry of Environment, Fores...