The Delhi high court has directed the Delhi government's department of forest to give information on the permissions granted by tree officers for felling trees between April 1, 2022 and March 31 this year and the total number of trees that were cut down. The direction came in a 2015 suo motu plea initiated by the high court on poor air quality in the national capital. A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Manmohan and Justice Manmeet Pritam Singh Arora in its May 1 order directed the Forest Secretary of Delhi government to give particulars and details of notified reserve forests in Delhi with "area and notification". The court has further called for information on 'Notified Protected Forests (Except Parks/Orchards), Notified Protected Areas, Notified open Forests and Notified Bio-diversity Parks'. The court has further called for information on permissions granted between April 2022 till March this year by the forest department’s Tree Officers to the authorities such as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and Public Works Department for felling trees as well as the number of trees felled by each of the authorities. It has also asked for details of the number of trees planted – by way of "compensatory afforestation, or otherwise" and the number of trees planted in "open forest", the "value of timber sold" and accounted for and as to where have the proceeds of the same been deposited. The HC has also sought details of the encroachments removed from forest areas during this period. It has further directed the secretary to furnish "real maps" on the forest area "from Geospatial Authorities". "He (Secretary) is directed to supply the said information within four weeks," the HC directed listing the matter on July 22. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change in March last year had filed an affidavit stating that as per the India State Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 published by Forest Survey of India, the green cover (forest and tree cover) of Delhi shows a manifold increase from "151 sq km in 2001 to 342 sq km in 2021", which depicts "gradual improvement" in percentage share of the geographical area of the state from 10.2 per cent in 2001 to 23.06 per cent in 2021. The Centre's affidavit points to the comparative areas of (Forest Cover and Tree Cover) Delhi reported from 2001 to 2021 and states that the same has shown "continuous increase in the forest cover and tree cover" as reported between ISFR 2001 to ISFR 2021. The affidavit further said that compared to the plantation of over 34 lakh trees in 2021-2022, over 47 lakh trees have been planted for 2022-2023.
