Delhi: 4800 trees felled for three infrastructure projects, replantation bid still stuck

The NHAI had sought permission to cut 3,261 trees and deposited Rs 22.8 crore as compensation. But the latest CAG report — tabled in the Assembly in April — found that only 5% of the target of 40,000 trees was planted on DDA land at Tughlakabad biodiversity park within the stipulated nine-month period.

In the second project, forest department officials said that 1,713 trees have already been felled inside the India Trade Promotion Complex near Pragati Maidan, while permission was granted for felling of 82 trees as a part of the redevelopment project at Sundar Nagar.

But compensatory planting of at least 17,000 trees hasn’t started, with the DDA yet to hand over land — two plots of 17.13 hectares and 13.15 hectares on the Yamuna floodplains between the Yamuna Bank Metro station and CWG village — to the Delhi government’s forest department for plantation, claimed forest officials.

The site on the floodplains is also the location for compensatory planting for a third project — the NH-8 redevelopment near the Delhi-Gurgaon border, where permission has been given for felling 1,500 trees, said officials.  “Here, the DDA has to give us a plot of land measuring 19.52 hectares,” said an official.

“The DDA needs to hand over land at the earliest to the forest department for compensatory planting in lieu of trees that have been cut,” said AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj.

DDA vice-chairman Udai Pratap Singh said, “It’s all talk. We have allotted land and the letter has gone to them (Delhi government). If possession hasn’t taken place, that is their responsibility.”