Chandigarh, Jan. 30 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court on Thursday modified its January 23 order for National Highways Authority of India's Abohar -Fazilka highway and reduced compensatory afforestation in lieu of the project from 10 times to five times.

On January 23, the bench of chief justice Sheel Nagu and justice Sanjiv Berry had allowed an application of NHAI on felling of trees for the project. However, it had imposed a condition of 10 times afforestation. As many as 14,000 trees have been affected due to this project being cited as a project of national importance by the NHAI as it would serve an area of around 100 km along the international border with Pakistan. The court had then acted on an application by NHAI, seeking permi...