Click to play videoNew Delhi: Delhi's green cover is vanishing in the city's bid to widen roads, build flyovers and the metro. The Preservation of Tree Act requires 10 saplings to be planted for every tree that is cut, but a CNN-IBN special investigation found out that only half the targets are being met.
“Any agency that cuts a tree has to plant more trees,” Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit says.
2.7 lakh saplings were to be planted in exchange for trees felled for the Delhi Metro. However, according to the documents exclusively with CNN-IBN, of the 650 hectares that was to be made available, only 250 hectares are actually available.
158 acres are yet to be officially demarcated. 93 acres are already covered with thick scrub growth and 28 acres are under litigation
The Special Investigation Team also travelled to Delhi's west division to see what was happening at the tree re-plantation sites.
At the Rewala Khanpur city forest, CNN-IBN found that compensatory plantation had stopped as 12 acres were under litigation. At Kharkhari Jatmal, another plantation site, 16 acres were under litigation, the rest un-fenced.
“Yeh sach hai ki fencing ke wajah se yahan per aur plantation nahin ho paya hai. Fencing nahin hone se bahut pareshani hoti hai. Bachche idhar aaker ped tod dete hai (There is no fencing to protect the plantation here),” says the forest guard at Kharkari Jatmal.
Authorities maintain that they are looking into the matter.
“Another two-three tracts of land were given were under plantation in some cases. There were some disputes in terms of litigation, and therefore the actual plantation couldn't take place. But we've had a meeting today. We've sorted out most of these issues. We will be able to do this work and finish it in this financial year,” Delhi Government's Secretary of Environment JK Dadoo told CNN-IBN.
So who is responsible for the Delhi’s disappearing green cover — the Forest Department or the Revenue Department? Ultimately the losers are the average citizens of Delhi.
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