Eight trees felled daily on average in last 5 years in Delhi: RTI reply

NEW DELHI: Eight trees were on average cut every day in Delhi for the past five years—from August 2016 to August 2021—an RTI reply has revealed. The reply states a total of 15,090 trees were cut in the city over the past five years for various projects, which included permission given to individuals and state and central agencies for their projects.
Environmental activist Vikrant Tongad, who filed the RTI, says each tree can fulfill the oxygen needs of around four people. Saplings planted for compensatory afforestation take several years before they grow into adult trees again. “The data fetched has a list of trees for which permission was given. However, a large number of trees are cut illegally for which there is no data available and hence, the actual impact on Delhi’s greenery would be much more,” said Tongad, stating the survival rate of saplings planted as part of compensatory plantation also needed to be monitored.
While Tongad had filed his RTI application in 2018, he said he was able to receive the reply only on Wednesday. “This is the latest data provided by the Delhi government’s forest and wildlife department and pertains to the last five years,” said the activist.
A senior forest and wildlife official said the figure of 15,000 trees was a conservative one for a city having a green cover of nearly 25 per cent. “Over five years, this figure is fairly low and largely includes permissions for projects wherein tree felling was inevitable. These are largely public projects for the larger benefit of the citizens of Delhi,” said the official, stating permission was given to several projects, including NHAI projects, NBCC projects and DMRC work.
A five-member Supreme Court-appointed committee had earlier this year stated the value of a tree to be Rs 74,500 that increases with its age. This included the costs of generating oxygen and other benefits to the overall ecosystem. Trees over 100 years old were said to have an economical value of more than Rs 1 crore. The committee consisted of expert members Soham Pandya, B K Maji, Niranjita Mitra, N K Mukarji and Sunita Narain.
According to the latest India State of Forest Report released in 2019, Delhi’s green cover stood at 21.9% (324 sqkm in area). In 2017, it stood at 20.6%, or 305.4 sqkm of the total area of Delhi.