Nagpur: Road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari is pacifying greens by promising that 70% of the trees to be felled for the Inter Modal Station (IMS) at Ajni, will be transplanted on the lines of Dwarka Expressway in Delhi. However, transplantation has been an utter failure, even if done scientifically, not only in Delhi but elsewhere in the country too, including Nagpur to be specific.
On January 31, addressing the media, Gadkari allayed fears of green activists on large-scale tree felling and said the NHAI, which is implementing the IMS project, will transplant 70% trees. However, TOI found that several attempts in the city by MahaMetro, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC), and Forest Development Corporation Maharashtra (FDCM) have failed miserably. FDCM transplanted 300 trees in 2017-2018 in Gorewada but many died.
Environmentalist and plantation expert Prachi Mahurkar, who did a survey of trees at Ajni Van says, “There are 58 species of trees at Ajni. Considering their huge canopy, it will be a futile exercise to transplant trees from Ajnivan. A good natural green cover with creepers has developed over the last 100 years there.”
As for Dwarka Expressway, which connects the industrial town of Gurugram, NHAI project director Nirman Jambhulkar says, “We transplanted around 5,000 trees in two years and the survival rate is 80-85%. We plan to transplant 5,000 more trees. We are doing it scientifically with an expert agency.”
However, there have been many media reports about the failed transplantation of trees on Dwarka Expressway. V Selvarajan, founder of NGO Green Circle and resident of Dwarka, calls it a NHAI bluff. “As per the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) policy, 80% of trees transplanted should survive. But not many trees have survived.”
The Green Circle team also released a video from Sector-23 in Dwarka, where many trees were transplanted. “A majority of trees are either dead or dying. Tree transplantation is not successful in India. Just digging a pit and watering won’t serve the purpose. Survival of a transplanted tree depends on many factors which are ignored,” says Selvarajan.
Satyawrat Tyagi, general manager of J Kumar Infraprojects, an agency working for Dwarka transplantation, says, “The allegations are false. We are spending Rs 30,000 on each tree. People want immediate results, but it takes at least five months for shoots to come on a transplanted tree.”
“It is true there were problems during Covid-19 as we were unable to water and manure trees. This led to some casualties, and media highlighted the failures,” says Tyagi.
Green activist Jaydeep Das says, “Our past experience is of Aarey in Mumbai, where 64% transplanted trees died. In Nagpur, trees were reduced to stumps with no new shoots in last four years. The exercise is futile, and a waste of public money.”
NMC garden superintendent Amol Chorpagar says, “All the roots of the trees have surface hair to enable infiltration of water and absorption of minerals and nutrients. Agencies try to dig small pits, which don’t allow water to reach the roots causing failure. Besides, success depends on tree species and health.”
“Without scientific approach, it is like pulling out a pole from one place and fixing at a different place. I appeal to both, Centre and the state governments to prepare a policy and form an expert committee for accountability and systematic approach to tree transplantation,” said Selvarajan.
BOX
KEY TO TREE TRANSPLANTATION
* Soil in both locations must match
* Micronutrients and underground water sources in new area must be sufficient
* New location must be free from disturbances like termites, concretization etc
* Lot depends on species and age of tree
* Transplanting agencies have to be technically capable
FAILED TRANSPLANTATIONS IN NAGPUR
By NMC at Tekdi
By NMC near Trimurti Nagar (in 2004)
By Mahametro in MIHAN
By Mahametro in Patwardhan school ground, Sitabuldi
By Mahametro in Ambazari Biodiversity park, Kachimet side