NEW DELHI: The protest by residents of south Delhi against the planned felling of more than 16,500 trees for a government redevelopment project entered its third day on Sunday.
The protest, being held under the banner of 'Delhi Trees SOS' campaign, has been inviting people to join protesters at 4.30pm in Sarojini Nagar.
Calling it their own 'Chipku Movement', several environmental organisations have come together to "hug the trees" and "let the government know they will not be allowed to cut down so easily."
The issue of cutting of trees for redevelopment of seven south Delhi colonies has triggered a blame game as Union Environment Minister Harsh Vardhan claimed that the Delhi government was responsible for granting permission for felling trees in non-forest areas.
However, the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has stated that the clearance was issued by the Ministry of Environment and Forest in November last year.
AAP had also accused the Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, as well as Minister of State Hardeep Singh Puri of "first increasing the fares of the Metro and then taking a decision to cut heritage trees" which, the party said, would eventually lead to rise in air pollution levels. The protest by 'Delhi Trees SOS' and will continue for the next few days.
Juhi, one of the founders of the group, said, "We have been organising protests for the last two days and we will be doing it for the entire week. We all are concerned about the environment, and so we are here, and anyone who feels for the cause has joined us.
"We will be going around in this area, hugging trees and tying Rakhis to them on Sunday, until the plan is dropped," she added
Delhi Environment Minister Imran Hussain also joined the protest on Sunday, where he showed the documents where he has opposed any kind of project which needs to cut trees.
Many senior leaders of AAP and ministers of the Delhi government joined the protest with the citizens. AAP also stated that they have always opposed any plans of cutting trees in Delhi.