Green lungs walking: Thousands of trees to make way for infra projects in Delhi

NEW DELHI: Thousands of trees on construction sites and other projects are to be transplanted across Delhi over the next few months. The state government has empanelled four expert agencies for the task. These agencies will assist construction companies and others in ‘safe’ tree transplantation that assures a high survival rate of the trees. Some projects requiring such help are the Central Vista development and the Dwarka Expressway.
A forest official disclosed, “We have received 40 proposals from construction companies for transplanting trees, nine in the central division, 12 in the south and 19 in the west. Many projects were given approval for transplantation a few months ago but the construction companies were awaiting the empanelment of technical experts. With the panels recently finalised, the project developers can now choose an agency for the work. The agencies will adhere to all the technical specifications for carrying out tree transplantation in Delhi.”

For Dwarka Expressway project, officials revealed that nearly 12,000 trees have already been transplanted and their survival rate was around 84%. They said around 1,000 more remained to be moved. The forest department has also granted permission to Delhi Jal Board to carry out some transplantation in the west division.
Among the other projects that will have to undertake tree transplantation include the Netaji Nagar Redevelopment Project, where Delhi government recently gave permission to transplant 1,314 trees. Over 1,800 trees are also expected to be transplanted for the Central Vista project.
Meanwhile, some projects awaiting forest department clearance for transplantation include the redevelopment plan for New Delhi Railway Station. “The approval for the transplantation of around 1,000 trees at the New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment site is in the process,” said the official. “Similarly, for Delhi Urban Extension Road (UER) 2, there is an application pending for the shifting of around 2,000 trees.”
The official said it was mandatory for each construction project to disclose at the start the number of trees to be affected. “This figure, once provided, is assessed and once cleared by Delhi government, the transplantation of the affected trees can be carried out. This figure can increase or decrease, depending on the tree species and their chances of survival. Invasive species, however, are not transplanted at all.”
The tree transplantation policy was notified last year. It says a minimum of 80% of trees affected by a development or construction project have to be transplanted and as many as 80% of them must survive the transplantation. Additionally, compensatory planting of 10 saplings for each tree will continue.
The official added, “The trees should be properly preserved and none should be unnecessarily removed for the development projects. When on-site preservation is not possible, scientific transplantation of the affected trees, rather than their felling, has to become the new norm.”
The policy notifies a proper procedure to be followed while shifting trees from a project site to some other place for transplantation.