NEW DELHI: More than five lakh trees were planted from 2003 to 2015 to restore forest cover lost due to construction and expansion of Delhi Metro, the city government informed the Delhi high court on Wednesday.
PWD and the forest department have filed affidavits before the high court, which is hearing a batch of PILs on deteriorating air quality in the city. The high court had demanded to know if the government had implemented its policy of compulsory afforestation after tree felling by DMRC.
The forest department said it recovered more than Rs 70 crore during the same period from DMRC as a security deposit for trees felled by it. However, the government didn't earn any revenue from the felling of timber trees because these were supplied for free to the city crematoriums, the affidavit said. The policy of giving free timber is to discourage cutting of fresh trees by the crematoriums, it explained.
PWD informed the court that almost 3,000 trees were felled for Metro's Phase III expansion but the department ensured 80,000 trees were planted.
When the court asked if the trees were planted near the locations from where the earlier ones were cut, the government said in many cases it had left plantation of trees to the private party engaged in construction while in some cases it planted them according to the available space.
On April 15, HC had expressed alarm at the "magnitude" of trees cut by Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) for various projects, linking it to rise in air pollution.
It had sought reports from the government on scale and locations of "replantation".
Observing that the notified green cover which was supposed to be 30% had fallen to 10.2% in 2009 and could be much lower now, the high court had also sought an action plan from the government and the Centre to restore it.
The bench had also said that the DMRC has disclosed that approximately 46,529 trees have been cut for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd phases. "Prior to cutting the trees DMRC had obtained permission from Forest Department under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994. The permissions are subject to certain conditions of compensatory plantation security and according to DMRC they have deposited approximately a sum of Rs 68 crores. This is to cater to plantation of approximately 5,18,565 trees. The Forest Department needs to file an affidavit," the court had said.
