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Delhi: Future will either be green, or none at all...

DNA takes a closer look at Delhi’s rich green history, its depleting forest cover, and a bleak future

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In her book, 'Maps of Delhi', Pilar Maria Guerrieri has presented an exquisite study of Maps of Delhi from early 19th century till the master plan of 2021. As one flips the pages, one can see how the landscaping of the city has changed over centuries, specially its green cover. From well-designed 'charbaghs' with an eclectic mix of trees and plants to barren streets with cemented pavements, the city once revered by the Sultans, who ruled it, has now become a city everyone wishes to escape from.

After Mughals, even the British made every attempt to make Delhi greener (or at least tried), for they made a Delhi city plan about 100 years ago and shortlisted various varieties of trees to be planted across the city's roads. The British did not wish to have deciduous trees (trees that shed their leaves in winters) in the streets, and thus the selection of evergreen trees like neem, imli, arjan, and keekar was made, which eventually proved to be a bad decision but the attempts are still appreciated by many.

To Mughals rulers themselves, forests meant wooded lands where they could hunt and collect some revenue. There was no restriction on cutting of trees other than some specific royal trees. And during the time of Shershah Suri, plantation of trees along the DelhiPatna Highway was also done.

In a Shahjahanabad map from the 1850 in 'Maps of Delhi', one can clearly see the huge patch of green, and the then 'Chandni Chowk Bagh', most of which has now been converted in to a Metro Station and a parking area. Not just this, several areas and gardens either do not exist anymore or are in a very bad shape due to low maintenance.

In a recently released ranking list by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, Delhi was ranked 65th out of the 111 cities on the Ease of Living Index. Delhiites resonated with the list and said that it has become difficult by the day to live in the national capital. Earlier this year, the government had passed a green budget of Rs 53,000 crore to push green initiatives to fight air pollution levels in the Capital. While in a review report later, Deputy CM Manish Sisodia had confirmed that 21 of the environment-friendly schemes, of the 26, are on track, Delhiites feel that these were just numbers and the government has actually not made any efforts to make the conditions livable in Delhi.

The survey was conducted in 111 cities in the country. Hardeep Singh Puri, Union Minister of State of Housing and Urban Affairs, said the Ease of Living Index was based on four parameters, including physical infrastructure. While the ranking did not surprise anyone, it also brought forth the number of increased respiratory issue cases in the last five years.

For ten-year-old Rabia Sachdeva, last three years have been very difficult in Delhi due to the increased air pollution. The once completely healthy child, had her first asthma attack when she was seven, in the month of October, when Delhi got covered in a blanket of smog. "Every year during Diwali, it becomes difficult to breathe in this city. How good is a city if people have to go about doing their daily chores wearing masks? I am surprised that it even made it till 65 and not beyond. High time we concentrate on building peripheral cities to save this one," said Kshitiz Sachdeva, Rabia's father.


Mangar Bani, which is the true representation of Aravallis, is only 25 kilometres from Gurugram’s cyber city

Numbers say it all

As per the India State of Forest Report (SFR)-2017, the total forest and tree cover of NCT of Delhi has gone up by 0.25 per cent and 0.13 per cent respectively.

Of the total land area of Delhi - 1483 square kilometers - 188.7 square kilometers was covered with forest in 2015, which has now gone up to 192.4 sq km in 2017.

Despite this, the very dense forest cover has come down from 6.94 square km in 2015 to 6.72 square km in 2017, and the medium dense forest cover dropped from 57.1 square km to 56.2 square km.

The overall increase is due to the increase in open forest cover, which covers 10 to 40 per cent, from 124 square km to 129 sq km, thus increasing the overall cover.

As per the CAG report, Delhi is short of nine lakh trees. 65,090 plants were to be planted between 2015 and 2017, but only 21,048 were planted and many ornamental plants were made into it. When the matter came to light, the Urban Development Ministry responded with a reply and said that the Ministry will investigate the matter of imposing low trees. Thousands of trees were cut during the construction of the Metro but no new saplings were planted. As for the plants which were planted after cutting of trees, only ten per cent of them survive and these small plants do not prove to be helpful in dealing with pollution and maintaining the environment clean.

"Most of the plantation shown on paper is only theoretical as plantation of saplings or distribution of seeds are also counted. But there is a huge uncertainty always whether the sapling planted will survive or not. Of several hectares of plantation done on the papers, many may have died within a few days due to various reasons. This is called ghost plantation. If we are to be sure of these planted trees, we need to also put resources into maintaining them," said Vimlendu Jha, social and environmental activist.

Jha, also a member of the Ridge Development Authority, a body formed by the NGT to protect Delhi's ecologically sensitive ridge areas, added that felling of trees was rampant even in the ridge's forest area despite stringent laws.

"No government takes these issues with the seriousness it requires," Jha said.

In a Delhi High Court judgment on July 4, 2018, a Bench of acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar questioned, "How can a sapling replace a grown-up tree? The Delhi government shall explain how a fully-grown tree could be equated with 10 saplings? How long will a sapling take to grow as a tree? Delhi was earlier known for its bird population. If Delhi needs that buildings be dismantled, they will be dismantled. You can't leave the city to die like this."

The bench had shown concern that cutting down 16,500 trees further would like leaving the city to die. It also questioned the Centre on its redevelopment scheme, asking how permission was given to change a two-storeyed building, meant for two families, into an eight-storey building.

"From where do you get water for such eight-floor buildings? What amount of garbage will be generated? Where is parking and what about air pollution? You do not apply your mind to planning," the Bench said. The court was also of the opinion that the construction was an impediment for ambulances and patients in reaching the two super speciality hospitals — AIIMS and Safdarjung — in the area.

Earlier this year, the Supreme Court had pulled up the Centre for not using the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund for the right purpose. The fund was instead used for construction of roads, science laboratories and renovation of bus stands.

The idea of compensatory afforestation, which essentially means planting trees to compensate for undertaking an activity that leads to deforestation, has its roots in the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980. The ad hoc CAMPA body was created by the order of the Supreme Court on July 10, 2009. It was formed as a National Advisory Council under the chairmanship of the environment minister for monitoring, technical assistance and evaluation of compensatory afforestation activities.

Till 2016, when the CAF Act was finally passed by the Parliament, compensatory afforestation and the fund collection was happening under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund guidelines released by MoEF in 2009. The Act was followed by the long-awaited rules, which came out in February this year.

In June this year, while Aam Aadmi Party raised a voice against felling of 16,500 trees for redevelopment projects, it turned out that it itself had a bad record when it came to saving the environment. According to Delhi's forest department records, every application requiring cutting down of trees was approved by the state government since 2015.

More than 17,115 trees have been cut in the city. In 2015 alone, 8,889 trees were allowed to be cut. The number fell to 3,580 in 2016, of which 1,700 trees were to be cut in the Pragati Maidan area for redevelopment. In 2017, the number of permissions granted again rose to 4,646.

"Not just trees in the city, but the peripheral cover is getting lost too. We all saw the consequence of losing our peripheral green cover in June when several dust storms from Rajasthan had arrived in the city. The tree shieldings this city are gone too," added Jha.

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