Indian Islamic Center warns Muslims against cutting down trees June 4, 2024

A worker is pictured against the setting sun as he bathes on a hot summer's day in Jammu on June 3, 2024. (AFP)

By AFP - Agence France Presse

Indian Islamic Center warns Muslims against cutting down trees

One of India's most influential Islamic centers has warned Muslims not to cut down trees or burn fields after the harvest to help curb climate change and rising temperatures.

Much of northern India has been hit by a deadly heatwave, with temperatures soaring above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit), killing dozens of people from heatstroke.

“Every Muslim should make sure that no green tree or plantation is set on fire,” Khalid Rasheed Farangi Mahal, president of the Islamic Center of India, told AFP.

Mahal, a leading scholar in the northern city of Lucknow, issued the fatwa or non-binding ruling on Sunday, saying the religious duty of Muslims to conserve greenery and water was “stated in the Quran”.

“The burning of trees and plantations is forbidden in Islam and is considered a grave sin,” says the fatwa, published in Urdu and Hindi.

He also asked Islamic clerics to encourage environmental stewardship during their sermons by telling people to take care of the trees around them.

“Instead of simply planting a sapling symbolically, it is more meaningful to take care of existing plants and trees,” he said, asking Muslims to avoid polluting waterways and the sea.

Last week, an Indian court asked the government to declare a national emergency because of the current heatwave in the country, saying that hundreds of people had died during weeks of extreme weather.

The High Court in the western state of Rajasthan, which has suffered from the hottest weather, said that the authorities had failed to take adequate measures to protect the public from the heat.

India is no stranger to scorching summer temperatures, but years of scientific research have found that climate change is causing heatwaves to become longer, more frequent, and more intense.

Researchers say that human-induced climate change has caused the devastating impact of heat in India and should be taken as a wake-up call.

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