Govt cancels tree-felling permit

A day after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) stayed felling of 16,573 trees to make way for the colonies to house bureaucrats, the Delhi Government has revoked all permissions granted so far to the agencies concerned.

The order has made it amply clear that all Government agencies will have to take fresh permissions for tree felling considering Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) factor.

On Monday, the NGT had issued a notice to the Delhi Government, NBCC — a construction enterprise of Ministry of  Housing & Urban Affairs, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF &CC) and other civic agencies — Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and Special Commissioner, Delhi Traffic Police (DTP) for not accessing required EIA before passing any construction project on the land of Government of  National Capital Territory (GNCTD).     

The GNCTD has written to the DDA and asked it to hand over land for compensatory sapling plantation against tree felling permission given for various projects.

The Delhi Forest Department in its report said plantation could not be undertaken to compensate the loss of trees at Nauroji Nagar because the 14.65-hectare was not made available.

 “This monsoon, the plantation will be undertaken if the land is made available,” a Forest Department report said.

The Forest Department submitted the the report to Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain .

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi Government and the Centre have locked horns over compensatory plantation of saplings in the wake of trees felling at Naroji Nagar and Netaji Nagar which recently led to a public outcry.

Meanwhile, Delhi Cabinet has approved  department of Environment proposal for Real time Apportionment study for Air Pollution in Delhi

According to Government spokesperson, the Delhi Environment Department has also decided to grant consultancy job entitled, “Real Time Source Apportionment study for Air Pollution in Delhi” to Department of Energy, Environmental and Chemical Engineering, University of Washington in St. Louise, USA on nomination basis by invoking Rule 194, GFR 2017 for a total project cost of US$ 175,000 (Rs. 1.20 Cr approx).

“A fresh, comprehensive and reliable study is required to enable Delhi government to plan its actions and install real time pollutant source identification model in Delhi,” the official said. Importantly, the project has to be completed in a span of 18 months from the date of award of study, he said. 

Meanwhile, Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) has been authorized to finalize detailed terms of reference for the study with mutual consultations with Washington University team.

The proposal was submitted by Dr Pratim Biswas and Dr Ramesh Raliya, Research Scientist, Department of Energy, Environment and Chemical Engineering, Washington University in St. Louis l St. Louis, MO 63130, USA on the behalf of the university. Duration of the study is one and a half years (18 months).

They will also be setting up a cloud based platform where the data can be shared and viewed by approved groups from during the course of the project.