To save 1,400 trees, NGT sets up committee to inspect road project

Team to check feasibility of transplanting them elsewhere

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) on Tuesday constituted a special committee to inspect an elevated road project on Vikas Puri–Mukarba Chowk on Outer Ring Road in West Delhi and to examine whether the trees that would be uprooted as part of the work can be transplanted.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar set up the committee after it was told that over 1,400 trees would be felled as part of the project and said if the transplantation of the trees is possible then the same should be carried out expeditiously.

“We constitute a special committee consisting of conservator of forest, Delhi, superintending engineer of Public Works Department, a senior officer from Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (planning and engineering) Centre and a scientist to be nominated by Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education.

“This committee shall pay personal visit to the entire project area. It shall then examine as to which of the 1,400 trees can be transplanted. If the answer is in the positive and trees to be transplanted are identified, then transplantation of the trees shall take place at a first instance,” the bench said.

The bench noted that the greenery in Delhi is the “most important saviour of environment from pollution” especially since the national capital is one of the most polluted cities in the world and observed that development at the cost of completely and irretrievably destroying the environment would not be permissible.

The tribunal also observed “the forest department of Delhi government is taking such matters very lightly and that orders/notifications are being issued in a very mechanical fashion without application
of mind”.