‘Only 41% transplanted trees survived in first half of 2022’

Only 41 per cent of the more than 8,500 trees transplanted in Delhi using modern technology in the April-September period have survived, according to the Delhi government’s outcome budget for first two quarters of the current financial year.

The outcome budget also showed that the Delhi government is yet to undertake the development of four world class city forests in the Capital. The project was announced in April last year. According to the government data, 64 per cent of the 3,457 trees transplanted in 2021-22 have survived.

Between April and September, 8,508 trees were transplanted using modern technology and only 41 per cent are alive. A total of 23 projects requiring translocation of trees were approved during the period. According to the forest department data submitted to the Delhi High Court in May last year, only a third (33.33 per cent) of the 16,461 trees transplanted in Delhi over the previous three years have survived.

According to the Delhi government’s tree transplantation policy notified in December 2020, agencies concerned have to transplant a minimum of 80 per cent of the trees affected by their development works. The benchmark tree survival rate at the end of one year of tree transplantation is 80 per cent.

The Delhi tree transplantation policy document states: “The final payment of the technical agency shall be

linked to the tree survival rate achieved with a provision for a penalty for tree survival rate below the benchmark rate.”

The first payment (20 per cent of the finalized rate) is made after 100 per cent completion of the transplantation of all trees through proper technical methods. No further payment will be made if less than 50 per cent of the trees fail to survive “as the transplantation operation will be declared a failure”, it says. According to the outcome budget, the city government is still to undertake the development of four world class city forests in the capital.

There are 19 city forests in Delhi, of which four — Mitraon city forest (98 acres) in west Delhi, Alipur city forest (48 acres) in north Delhi, Garhi Mandu city forest (42 acres) in northeast Delhi, and Jaunapur city forest (98 acres) in south Delhi — were selected for further development.