New Delhi: The confusion continues over the permission given to the DDA to fell trees in the Southern Ridge to clear the way for the construction of an access road in the Maidan Garhi area. Sources have now claimed that the proposal was brought by the Delhi government’s forest department and sent to the Lieutenant Governor for approval by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Forest department sources claimed that a request was received from the DDA on the Delhi government’s e-forest portal, seeking permission to fell 422 trees and transplant some of them under the Delhi Tree Preservation Act. After a field inspection by a forest department official and cross inspection by the deputy conservator of forests (south), a proposal was submitted by the environment and forest department, which was approved by the principal secretary and later by the concerned minister.
“Environment and Forest Minister Gopal Rai approved the proposal on January 23 and sent it to the chief minister. The chief minister gave his seal of approval to the proposal the next day and sent the file to the lieutenant governor with a note that he was obliged to provide “aid and advice” on the subject,” a forest department official said.
“The lieutenant governor approved the file and sent it back to the chief minister. A gazette notification was issued in this regard on February 14 and on February 15, the tree officer informed the DDA about the permission. The authority started cutting the trees from February 16,” the official said.
Of the 422 trees that were to be cut, 142 were to be transplanted. The officials A piece of forest land in Jaunapur has been identified for compensatory planting of 4,220 trees, while another land near Andheriya Mod has been identified for transplanting 142 trees, he said.
The trees were necessitated to construct a 10.5-km-long approach road from the main Chhattarpur Road to the SAARC University, AIIMS-CAPFIMS (Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences) campus and other establishments located in Maidangarhi, Sayurpur and Satbari in south Delhi.
While the alleged permission was obtained under the Delhi Tree Preservation Act, the agencies ignored the fact that the Supreme Court’s permission was required to cut such a large number of trees, which was allegedly not taken. The issue was brought to the notice of the Supreme Court by two NGOs, who alleged that at least 1,100 trees were cut in violation of the Supreme Court’s 1995 order. Following this, notices were issued to the DDA and other stakeholders.
The Supreme Court bench said, “Prima facie, we find that the action of DDA in felling trees for road construction is in contempt of the order passed by this court on February 8 and March 4, 2024. Notice is issued to the Vice Chairman, Delhi Development Authority to show cause as to why action should not be taken against him for contempt of the order of this court.”
The order came after advocate K Parameshwara, playing the role of amicus curiae, told the court that despite the Supreme Court order, Cutting down treesThe DDA went ahead with the work. On March 4, the Supreme Court refused to allow the DDA to cut 1,051 trees, saying their application was too vague. Later, while hearing the case, the Supreme Court said that according to the DDA’s own statement, at least 633 trees were cut.
Subsequently, the Supreme Court issued a notice of criminal contempt against DDA vice-chairman Subhasish Panda for allowing large-scale felling of trees and also expressed displeasure over the “misleading” affidavit filed by him and presenting “false facts” before the court. LG VK Saxena He had visited the area on February 3 and given “verbal” orders to cut the trees, the court said, also seeking to know whether the LG, who is also the chairman of the authority, had anything to do with it.
Alleging that the trees were “illegally” felled on the instructions of the LG, the AAP government recently constituted a three-member fact-finding committee of ministers Saurabh Bharadwaj, Atishi and Imran Hussain to probe the matter and fix responsibility. The committee issued notices to DDA, forest department officials and Delhi Police to appear before it. While the police officials appeared before the committee, the DDA and forest department officials did not turn up.
Asked whether the proposal to fell 422 trees was indeed brought by the Environment and Forests Department and sent to the Lt Governor by the chief minister, the government said in a statement that minister Gopal Rai had repeatedly sought factual reports on the matter from his department but these have not been provided yet.
“It is difficult to ascertain what action these officials have taken regarding the illegal felling of trees as they are neither informing their minister nor the fact-finding committee,” the Delhi government said in a statement.
“If DDA had permission to cut the trees, it would have informed the Supreme Court on the very first date and no charge of contempt of court would have been raised against it,” the statement said.
Meanwhile, addressing a press conference on Thursday, AAP functionary Jasmine Shah questioned the BJP’s silence on the issue. She said the BJP and the LG have maintained “silence” on the issue ever since it surfaced. There was no immediate response from the BJP or the LG’s office.
Shah said that in the last nine years, the AAP government planted crores of trees to reduce pollution, shut down coal-fired thermal power plants, provided 24-hour electricity to Delhiites and brought the country’s best electric vehicle policy. On the other hand, the BJP is cutting trees in cities and mountains in the name of development.
He said a fact-finding committee of the Delhi government is sending notices, but the officials are not responding. Shah asked, “Because all these officials come under the LG. So there is definitely pressure on them from above. The BJP should tell who is putting pressure on the forest department officials of the Delhi government?”
