Following public outrage, the National Buildings Construction Corporation (NBCC) and CPWD have decided to re-visit their plans for the redevelopment of government colonies in South Delhi to ensure that minimum trees are felled. The consensus following a meeting held on June 28, was that not a single tree will be cut for the projects and citizen groups will be invited to suggest the location to transplant the trees.
It was decided that as many as 10 lakh trees of 8-12 feet height will be planted in the next three months. Overall, NBCC will plant 25,000 trees and the CPWD would plant 50,000. DDA will plant 10 lakh and DMRC will plant 20,000.
"I have now asked concerned agencies to rework plans. I hope Delhi Govt will now follow this example in all future plans," tweeted Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Hardeep Puri.
The process would be completed over the next three months during monsoon, and the trees will comprise fruit-bearing, flowering and other green trees, the ministry added.
The meeting was chaired by Puri himself. Others who attended the meeting included Delhi L-G Anil Baijal, MoHUA Secretary Durga Shankar Mishra, MoHUA Additional Secretary Manoj Kumar, Vice Chairman of DDA Uday Pratap Singh, CMD of NBCC Anoop Kumar Mittal, DG of CPWD Abhai Sinha, and special DG of CPWD Prabhakar Singh.
Baijal has been tasked with setting up a group of experts or concerned citizens to interact on environmental issues in respect of these colonies, the ministry said.
NBCC has floated an expression of interest for the relocation of trees, transplantation equipment and for engaging services of trained professionals for the purpose.
The redevelopment project, was embroiled in a blame game between the AAP and BJP, as locals and activists decided to launch the "Chipko Movement" and hug trees to save them.
Meanwhile, Congress president Rahul Gandhi hit out at the BJP and AAP on June 28 over the felling of trees and urged the masses to fight against this "madness". Taking to Twitter, he said even children know the importance of trees in life and urged the people to stand by the Congress.
The Delhi High Court on June 25 had questioned the move of felling over 16,500 trees for the project. Taking note of the views expressed by the court, the NBCC agreed not to cut any trees until July 4, when the case would come up for hearing.
Chetan Agarwal, an independent analyst and senior fellow with the Centre for Ecology Development and Research said, "This is a welcome move by the minister. A tree census should be held and all trees should be mapped and this tree map should be the basis for redevelopment projects. Secondly, the MoEF environment clearances process should be reworked for real estate projects to require preparation of existing tree maps and preservation of maximum trees."
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