Tree Management · Real Estate & Construction
Tree Management for Real Estate & Construction: Tree Authority NOC before anything on site is felled or shifted.
No tree on a development site may be felled, trimmed or transplanted until the municipal Tree Authority grants permission under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, which makes the tree NOC the first gate on the site-clearance programme, not a formality after it.
Screening view on your project, with the category and route named. No obligation.
What this means for real estate & construction
The 1975 Act constitutes a Tree Authority in every urban local body, and it is that body (not the planning department, and not the SEIAA) that decides whether a tree comes down. The process is local by design: MCGM, NMMC, TMC, PCMC, PMC and the smaller councils each run their own application format, their own site-inspection practice, their own compensatory plantation ratio and their own charges and deposits, and the practice in one corporation tells you very little about the practice in the next. The 2021 amendment to the Act added protection for heritage trees and routed larger felling proposals to state-level scrutiny, which lengthened the timeline for exactly the kind of large plot a developer buys. Meanwhile the EC will separately carry conditions on tree count and green cover, so the trees on site are being counted by two authorities against two different obligations.
How KIPL runs it
KIPL runs the tree file as part of the works programme rather than as an afterthought: a numbered, geo-referenced census with girth, canopy and species; an honest transplantation feasibility that separates the trees that can genuinely survive relocation from the ones that will not; a compensatory plantation plan with somewhere real to plant it; and the application, hearing and follow-through with the specific corporation involved. The failure we are most often called to repair is a site where a contractor cleared first, because that is not a fee problem: it is an offence under the Act, and it contaminates the EC file and the developer's standing with the same authority for every subsequent phase.
- Trees Act 1975
The Tree Authority, not the planning authority, decides
Permission to fell, trim or transplant is granted by the municipal Tree Authority constituted under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975, on its own inspection and its own conditions.
- 2021 amendment
Heritage trees and large felling proposals
The 2021 amendment introduced heritage-tree protection and referred larger felling proposals to state-level scrutiny, which lengthens the approval path on precisely the large land parcels developers acquire.
The clearance counts the same trees
Tree count, transplantation survival and green cover appear again as Environment Clearance conditions and in the half-yearly compliance report, so the census that supports the NOC has to be the census the EC file uses.
What you receive
Written for real estate & construction, not adapted from a template.
- 01Numbered, geo-referenced tree census with species, girth, canopy spread and photographs
- 02Transplantation feasibility, species by species, separating viable relocation from replacement
- 03Tree Authority application in the format of the specific corporation, with charges and deposits mapped
- 04Compensatory plantation plan with identified planting locations on or off site
- 05Transplantation execution, root-ball preparation and post-transplant maintenance for the survival period
- 06Survival records and photographic evidence for the EC half-yearly compliance report
Questions from real estate & construction
What real estate & construction ask before appointing us.
Answered against the regulation as it stands, not as a sales pitch. If your situation is not here, ask us directly.
Ask a question →Who issues the tree cutting permission for a project in Mumbai or Thane?
The Tree Authority of the municipal corporation with jurisdiction (MCGM, TMC, NMMC, PCMC, PMC or the relevant council) constituted under the Maharashtra (Urban Areas) Protection and Preservation of Trees Act 1975. Each corporation runs its own format, inspection practice and compensatory ratio, so the process has to be prepared for the corporation you are actually in.
Can we start site clearance while the tree NOC is pending?
No. Felling or damaging a tree without permission is an offence under the Act, and on a development site it is nearly always visible and nearly always reported. Beyond the penalty, it creates a hostile record with the same authority you will need for the next phase and for the compliance reporting on the clearance.
Is transplantation genuinely a way to save trees, or only a paper option?
It works for some species, at some girths, with proper root-ball preparation, a prepared receiving pit and irrigation through the establishment period. And it fails routinely when any of those is skipped. We give a species-by-species view rather than a blanket claim, because the Tree Authority increasingly asks for survival evidence months later.
How does the tree NOC connect to the Environment Clearance?
Directly. The EC conditions carry tree count, plantation and green-cover commitments, and the compliance report has to evidence them. If the census filed with the Tree Authority and the numbers in the EIA disagree, both files weaken. We prepare one census that serves both.
What does compensatory plantation actually require?
Replacement planting at the ratio the corporation applies, usually with a species list, a location and a maintenance period, and increasingly with proof of survival rather than proof of planting. The practical constraint on a tight urban plot is where to plant, which is why the plantation location should be settled before the application, not after the NOC.
Do we need permission just to trim overhanging branches?
Trimming is regulated under the same Act, and corporations differ in how they treat routine pruning versus significant trimming. The safe practice on an active construction site is to obtain the position in writing from the Tree Authority before any cutting, because a contractor's judgement call becomes the developer's liability.
Stage by stage
How tree management actually runs, step by step.
Also for real estate & construction
The rest of the environmental brief for this sector.
Relevant proof
MCGM GARDEN DEVELOPMENT- MIYAWAKI PLANTATION
Miyawaki dense forestation across 27 locations in 7 wards using native species, delivered under the municipal greening programme.
- Area
- ~74,000 m²
- Trees
- ≈1,10,000
- CO₂ (est.)
- 2,052 t
Where we do this
Tree Management for real estate & construction, city by city.
Other sectors
Who else we run tree management for.
Next step
Tell us the project, and we will tell you the category and the route.
Screening is the cheapest stage to get right and the most expensive to get wrong. We will say plainly what tree management your real estate & construction project needs, and what it does not.
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