For trees cut in Delhi, Railways wants to carry out compensatory afforestation in Uttar Pradesh

The new terminal will be close to the IGI Airport.

Around 6.768 hectares of forest land in Southwest Delhi is proposed for diversion for the terminal.

In lieu of the forest land diverted, the railways has proposed to carry out compensatory afforestation on multiple patches of land in Uttar Pradesh. The compensatory afforestation land maps that have been submitted are for patches in Muzaffarnagar and Baghpat. A senior official of the forest department said compensatory afforestation land identified in Uttar Pradesh is around seven patches on around 6.84 hectares of land.

An official of the railways said compensatory afforestation land was identified in Uttar Pradesh since they could not find land for it in Delhi. “The DDA does not have land to give (for compensatory afforestation). So, we have applied and asked them to consider land in Uttar Pradesh. It has not been considered yet and it is not final. We were not getting in Delhi, so we had to try for the project… The proposal has now been sent back with some questions,” the official said.

Last year, the DDA had requested the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) to allow compensatory afforestation over degraded forest land in neighbouring states of Delhi for projects of the Central government/PSUs in Delhi, citing scarcity of land in the capital.

The Forest Advisory Committee that examined this matter last year decided to consider the proposal on a “case to case basis”. The minutes of the committee’s meeting last year said: “The Committee recommended that in cases where raising of CA (compensatory afforestation) is not possible in the same State/UT where diversion of forest land is proposed due to scarcity of land and on account of any other valid reasons, the Ministry, in such cases, on case to case basis, may allow raising of CA in other States/UTs, in public interest.”

In September last year, the DDA had written to the Northern Railway on non-availability of land for compensatory afforestation with regard to a proposal for a third and fourth line between Tilak Bridge and Anand Vihar.

In a letter dated September 5, 2022, the DDA wrote to the Northern Railway: “We regret to inform you that your request to facilitate 24.887 Hectare DDA land cannot be processed, as no land is available for Compensatory Afforestation with DDA.”

According to the MoEFCC’s Parivesh portal for submission of environment and forest clearances, this proposal of the railways, for forest clearance for the lines between Tilak Bridge and Anand Vihar, also remains pending.