The Punjab and Haryana high court (HC) has directed the Fortis hospital, Mohali, to the geo-tag 110 saplings that are being planted as part of compensatory afforestation for felling trees for hospital expansion.

The order came from the HC on an application moved by the hospital seeking permission for cutting of 22 trees.

Tree felling remains banned in Mohali since December 2025, when the court order was passed.

The facility incharge of hospital, Abhijit Singh had approached HC seeking permission for felling of trees for hospital expansion. The 22 trees to be felled are on the five acres allotted to the hospital by the Greater Mohali Area Development Authority (GMADA). The hospital had promised to plant five times the number of trees proposed to be felled. It had also stated that they would plant trees of the same species that are being felled, i.e, 25 Dek trees, 25 Kiker, 50 Tohat and 10 Beri. The hospital had undertaken responsibility for the maintenance and survival of the trees for ten years, including periodic watering and adequate protection.

The court while allowing cutting of the trees said that to ensure effective monitoring, verification and long-term survival of the compensatory plantation, each and every sapling planted shall be individually geo-tagged by the hospital. “The geo-tagging shall record the precise location of each plantation site and shall be maintained in a manner that facilitates its subsequent verification and monitoring. The authority/institution concerned shall also undertake periodic photographic verification of the geo-tagged saplings to monitor their survival and growth throughout the committed period,” it said, adding that the hospital would further make arrangements on its website for tracking and assessing the growth and survival of such saplings/trees. “Any breach of the undertaking would give rise to initiation of contempt proceedings,” the court asserted.