Guwahati, March 27 -- The Supreme Court, in a landmark judgment, imposed a hefty fine of Rs 1 lakh per tree, totaling Rs 4.54 crore, on a man who illegally cut 454 trees in the protectedMathura-Vrindavan area.

Shiv Shankar Agarwalhad unlawfully cut down 454 trees on private land in Mathura-Vrindavan's Dalmia Farms, out of which 32 were located on a roadside strip of protected forest land.

The bench, led by Justices Abhay S Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, rejected any leniency in this case, despite Agarwal admitting his error and seeking a reduction in the fine.

The Supreme Court has said that cutting a large number of trees is worse than killing human beings.

The top court stated that it would take at least 100 years for these trees to grow bac...