Delhi's heritage trees may be uprooted for new Central Vista project

Many heritage trees are likely to be uprooted and relocated as part of the ongoing Centra Vista Avenue redevelopment project in New Delhi, stretching from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate, media reports quoting government sources said.

The trees include neem and jamun trees on Raisina Road and Red Cross Road that are nearly 100 years old.

A Central Public Works Department (CPWD) spokesperson maintained that no trees will be cut and that affected trees will be transported. "We have started work after requisite approvals," they told Hindustan Times.

Another official from the environment and forest department of Delhi said that permission has been given to CPWD to transplant a total of 400 trees for the project. "There are some 20-22 old jamun trees on Raisina Road that are said to have been planted in the 1920s and were part of Edwin Lutyens’ original design of Lutyens’ Delhi," the official said.

They further added that these trees are 100 years old and they may not live through the transplantation.

Citizens and activists have taken to social media to lament the uprooting of the trees.