Nearly 14 trees are cut every day in Delhi: Central govt data
NEW DELHI: As per the latest official data of the Central government, Delhi witnessed cutting of nearly 15,000 trees in the span of 2014 to 2017. According to the data, nearly 5,000 trees are cut every year and nearly 14 every day. In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, the Environment Ministry said that 6,161 trees were cut in 2014-15 while 4,689 trees were cut in 2015-16. The number of trees cut in 2016-17 was 4,759.
"Over 15,000 trees have been cut in the national capital for undertaking various developmental and construction activities in the last three financial years," noted the report. Significantly, the report also notes that Section 10 of Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 (DPTA), prescribes that every person, who is granted permission under this Act to fell or dispose of any tree, will be bound to plant such number and kind of trees in the area. Accordingly, under the relevant provisions of this Act, the government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD) issued an order on March 4, 2010 to ensure that 10 tree saplings are planted and maintained till its establishment against felling permission for a tree.
However, according to reports in spite of cutting, Delhi's green cover increased marginally from 20.08% in 2013 to 20.22% in 2015, according to the forest department records measured through satellite image. Another report observed that multiple RTIs and high court orders have exposed gaps in the process of preserving Delhi's trees. Provoked by a PIL on pollution, the Delhi High Court in March 2017 ordered a CAG audit of the forest department's processes for tracking cut trees and compensatory money. "The issue is not only tree cutting, though, but promises of replantation. Reports available on the forest department's website only track how many trees have been cut and who made the requests, not whether trees have been replanted. Advocate Aditya Prasad filed an RTI that revealed a spotty record from 2006 to 2010. Of the 30 applications approved to remove 65,241 trees, five corporations fully completed replantation, 17 partially completed and seven replanted no trees," noted a report.
In September 2011, The Central Information Commission ordered that the forest department should make available the monthly locations of replantation and the environmental costs of development projects. But the order hasn't yet been fully enforced. In July 2017, nearly 1,700 trees were cut to give way to the integrated exhibition-cum-convention centre at Pragati Maidan, an RTI query has revealed. "As many as 1,713 trees have been identified for felling for the project. We have already issued permission as per the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act. The required fees have been deposited," said a senior official of the state forest department.
