Report suggests ‘unseemly haste’ to cut Ridge trees in Delhi

The felling of trees in the Delhi Ridge was carried out with “unseemly haste” by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and was totally unauthorised, according to a report by a Supreme Court-appointed three-member expert committee.

The panel, in its report submitted to the Supreme Court on June 19, has demanded explanation from the DDA vice chairman and other officials on how trees could be cut even when the land for an approved project was yet to be acquired. HT has seen a copy of the report.

Also Read: Supreme Court rebukes DDA for cutting trees in Delhi Ridge, says can’t trust it now

The panel comprising environmental experts Ishwar Singh, Sunil Limaye and Pradip Kishen was set up on court orders on May 16. The experts were asked to conduct a site inspection of the affected Ridge land in south Delhi along with a team of Forest Survey of India (FSI).

The FSI has also submitted a separate preliminary report to the court, stating that it was still in the process of ascertaining the actual number of trees cut and indicated that the final report will be prepared only by August.

Both the reports will be taken up on Wednesday for passing interim directions for restoration of the Ridge land and fixing accountability on who ordered the cutting of nearly 11,00 trees without the top court’s approval.

A Supreme Court bench of justices AS Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan on Monday warned it may issue a contempt notice to Delhi’s lieutenant governor as it hauled up the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) over the culpability for the felling of 1,100 trees for the widening of a road in south Delhi, a move the judges described as “brazen damage to the environment”.

The case stems from a contempt petition filed by Delhi resident Bindu Kapurea, who alleged trees were cut despite a March 4 court order denying permission and the fact that the trees had been cut being suppressed from the judges.

According to the three-member expert committee, DDA failed to follow the letter of law and committed two wrongs of felling the trees and widening or construction of road which can only be undone by asking the land owning authority to take immediate steps to remove the extension of the road falling in the Ridge area and compensate for the trees felled.

The report says that the affected area falls under the eco-sensitive zone around the Asola Bhatti wildlife sanctuary.

The committee informed the top court that even as trees were felled for expanding the road leading from Chhattarpur to SAARC University near Satbari (known as Gaushala Road), work on acquiring land belonging to many private establishments and farmhouses falling within the project area was still pending, and in some cases, litigation before courts are pending.

The report said, “It seems a curious anomaly that in absence of acquiring these private plots of land, road widening continued in unseemly haste and trees were felled on both forest and non-forest land without waiting for mandatory approvals.”

To be sure, DDA had obtained clearance under the Forest Conservation Act from the central government in March 2024. An application was moved for felling of trees for the project before the top court in February this year. On March 4, the top court rejected the application but by DDA’s own admission, the trees had been felled in February itself.

A spokesperson for the authority, however, did not respond to requests for comment on the report.

Meanwhile, Delhi minister Saurabh Bharadwaj on Tuesday doubled down on his claims that lieutenant governor VK Saxena was responsible for cutting of 1,100 trees by DDA in south Delhi. Saxena is the chairperson of DDA,

In a press conference on Tuesday, the minister cited emails dated February 7 and 14, 2024 from a DDA officer to several other authority officials, and claimed that the emails confirmed the LG’s involvement in tree felling.

Officials from the LG secretariat did not offer any comment on the minister’s claims.

The haste was also witnessed in the letter written by DDA official to the project contractor on December 29, 2023 to “take possession of the site and start the work at once.”

The report noted that this letter was not shared with the Delhi forest department or the tree officer under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA). “DDA will need to provide explanation for this kind of omission,” the report said.

The top court had on Monday asked DDA to come clean on whether the direction to cut trees was given by the Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena, in his capacity as Chairman of DDA or by any other officer. It referred to two emails of February 7 and 14 of this year written by an executive engineer of DDA, currently under suspension for his alleged role in tree felling, where it was mentioned that the tree felling has been directed by the L-G.

The records produced by DDA before the expert committee highlighted yet another aspect involving the L-G. On December 29, 2023 the DDA submitted an application before the Tree officer under DPTA seeking permission to fell 422 trees. As the site in question was over 1 hectare, the application was referred for approval of Delhi government. On February 14, 2024, the L-G, who is the chairman of DDA, decided on DDA’s application and granted approval under DPTA.

The report said, “The first wrong was to fell trees without permission. This was followed by a second wrong of widening and construction of road. If the Supreme Court directs both wrongs should be righted, the DDA will have to take steps to remove the extension of the road as well as compensate for the trees that have been illegally felled,” the report said.

Already, the top court has indicated that it plans to undertake a massive afforestation or replantation drive to compensate for the trees lost. The experts suggested that if 100 trees are to be planted for every tree cut, as proposed by the court, it will require huge space which DDA needs to identify. Further, the site clearance must be undertaken urgently as the best time to plant trees is the start of monsoons, which is imminent.

The report also highlighted concerns over transplantation of trees stating that at one of the sites meant for transplanted trees, on site visit no tree was found while in another site, the survival of transplanted trees was found to be “miserably low”.

The proceedings before the top court emanated from a contempt petition filed by a Delhi resident Bindu Kapurea alleging DDA of violating the top court’s order mandating prior permission from court for felling trees in the ridge, which serves as the green lung for citizens of Delhi. The petitioner through advocate Manan Verma is likely to seek further orders to restrain any further felling of trees in Delhi till the system is streamlined. According to the petitioner, the Ridge Management Board (RMB), meant to protect the ridge, has been frequently allowing diversion of ridge land. The top court had earlier passed a direction restraining RMB from processing any further application for tree felling.