A fallen tree inside a local market in New Delhi. (Express Photo by Praveen Khanna)A total of 47,474 trees were permitted to be transplanted or cut between 2019 and 2021 to pave the way for various official projects or constructions in the national capital after the Delhi government granted exemptions under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994, official data reveals. During the same period, only 33.33% of transplanted trees survived.
In total, 77,420 trees have been permitted to be cut or transplanted in 2019, 2020 and 2020 — 29,946 by the tree officers under Section 9 of the DPTA and 47,474 by the government under Section 29 of the DPTA.
The data has been submitted by Delhi’s forest department to the Delhi High Court in response to orders in a contempt case alleging victimisation of trees.
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Under Section 29 of DPTA, the government in public interest can exempt any area or any species of trees from all or any provisions of the Act. The government passed 52 such notifications between 2019 and 2021 to grant exemptions for various constructions including Dwarka Expressway, Urban Extension Road-II, Delhi Metro extension, expansion and restoration of Parliament building and various other developmental works, as per the reply. Out of the 47,474 trees impacted by the exemptions, 32,048 were asked to be transplanted.
(Express) The government’s reply also reveals that permission for transplantation or cutting of 11,335 trees is pending approval from the state environment minister. This includes permission for transplantation or felling of 2,143 trees for implementation of Master Plan of AIIMS to convert it into a world-class medical university, and also for transplantation or felling of 1,702 trees for redevelopment of GPRA Colony at Sarojini Nagar, Phase-V.
The court last month was told that a total of 13,490 trees were permitted to be cut and 16,456 trees were directed to be transplanted in 2019, 2020 and 2021 across Delhi by tree officers.
However, the government’s reply states that 16,461 trees were transplanted in 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 and 6,777 (41.17%) survived as per the user agency but only 5,487 (33.33%) survived as per the forest department.
(Express) The data on the numbers of trees permitted to be cut or transplanted had been sought by the court on April 28 after advocate Aditya N Prasad, representing petitioner Neeraj Sharma in the contempt case, had argued that a tree is cut every hour under official sanction in Delhi. The latest data shows that at least three trees were cut or transplanted every hour in 2019, 2020 and 2021.
Justice Najmi Waziri, in an order on April 28, had said that the “geographically distant and nascent compensatory plantation” can hardly be of any respite. It will take decades for the compensatory forests to be of any reckonable benefit, said the court. “The adverse environmental impact of such denudation is all too well-known,” Justice Waziri added.
On May 19, the court had stayed further tree-felling in Delhi in “public interest” and “for the sake of the environment for the present and future generations”. The interim order continues to be in force.
Delhi’s forest department in a reply before the court earlier this week said that despite several infrastructural projects and large-scale construction taking place in Delhi, the forest and tree cover has been increasing on a sustained basis from 151 sq. km in 2001 to 342 sq. km in 2021.
“The state of forest report published in 2021 by the Forest Survey of India, Dehradun, has recorded the extent of forest and tree cover in Delhi as 195 sq km (13.15%) and 147 sq. km (9.91%) respectively which covers 23.06% of its total geographic area which is 1,483 sq. km,” reads the reply.
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