Khushi Gupta
Published on: May 5, 2022 at 17:00 IST
The Delhi High Court has expressed its concern over the cutting down of fully-grown trees and said that it would be logical and prudent to transplant such trees instead of cutting them down and the self-defeating exercise by the Forest Department of the Delhi Government needs to be Arrested at the earliest.
The Contempt Plea by Neeraj Sharma, represented by Advocate Aditya N Prasad, pertains to the trees in the Vikas Marg Area in East Delhi.
The Petitioner claimed that a tree is cut down every hour in Delhi under Official Sanction and sought information from the Deputy Conservator of Forests on the number of trees that were permitted to be cut down in the last three year.
Justice Waziri said, “Geographically distant and nascent compensatory plantation can hardly be of any respite or actual compensation”.
“This is a worrying issue because on the one side endeavour is said to be underway to maintain and augment the green cover of Delhi while simultaneously fully-grown trees are allowed to be cut down. This self-defeating exercise by the Forest Department, GNCTD needs to be arrested at the earliest.”
“It will be logical and prudent to transplant fully grown trees instead of cutting them down,” said the Court in its order dated April 28.
“Compensatory Afforestation if at all carried out, on the fringes of the city, far removed from the congested areas of human habitation, where the sole decades-old-tree once stood as a carbon-sump-cum-fresh oxygen generator-cum-shade provider-cum- a visual respite from the ever-increasing concretization; the geographically distant and nascent compensatory plantation can hardly be of any respite or actual compensation.”
“In any Case, it will take decades for the compensatory forests to be of any reckonable benefit,” said the Court.
