This story is from November 24, 2020

Felling of trees for south Delhi colony: HC seeks govts' reply

Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the Aam Aadmi Party government and the central government on a public interest litigation challenging an order by the state's forest department permitting felling and transplantation of around 315 trees for redevelopment of a south Delhi colony.
Felling of trees for south Delhi colony: HC seeks govts' reply
Representative image
NEW DELHI: Delhi High Court on Monday sought the response of the Aam Aadmi Party government and the central government on a public interest litigation challenging an order by the state's forest department permitting felling and transplantation of around 315 trees for redevelopment of a south Delhi colony.
A bench of Chief Justice D N Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan issued notice to the Union ministry of environment, forest and climate change , Delhi government's deputy conservator of forests and the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) seeking their stand on the plea against felling of trees for redevelopment of Ayur Vigyan Nagar on August Kranti Marg in south Delhi.

The petitioner, Abhishek Dutt - a councillor of South Delhi Municipal Corporation, sought setting aside of the forest department's September 14 order and contended that the decision had been taken "without any application of mind" and no reasons were given for approving the project.
Dutt urged the high court bench to stay the felling and transplantation of trees till the next date of hearing, on December 11, but the court declined to pass an order without listening to the stand of authorities.
The petitioner claimed that the process of transplanting trees is not effective or successful, especially in India and planting of saplings would not be sufficient to compensate the loss of green cover.
"Planting 10 saplings for each tree that is felled is not enough considering the large size, ecological impact of larger trees and poor survival rate of saplings," the plea stated.
The petitioner submitted that the forest department order allowed large-scale destruction of vegetation and tree cover in the capital for the purposes of government redevelopment, wholly ignoring the issue of air pollution and environmental concerns that affect the health of the citizens of the city.
"Planting of saplings in a different location would be absolutely no substitute for the trees that are being cut. The record of tree authority, recent news articles and CAG report all point to the utter failure of the respondents in ensuring that compensatory plantation in its present form is not adequate and a mere excuse to damage the green cover of the National Capital Region to make way for concrete jungles," the plea claimed.
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