Suprme Court pulls up Delhi body for not conducting tree census

The Supreme Court on Friday pulled up the Delhi Tree Authority (DTA) for failing to carry out a tree census in the Capital as required under the Delhi Tree Preservation Act (DTPA). The court added that it will order the constitution of an expert body to vet every proposal for tree felling in the city, observing that DTA lacks the expertise to do this job.

A bench headed by justice Abhay S Oka was considering an application filed by a Delhi resident, Bhavreen Kandhari, which raised questions over the performance of DTA — a statutory body under DTPA that has allowed more than 60,000 trees to be felled between 2015 and 2021. The court had issued notice on the application on November 8 as the data presented by Kandhari suggested that Delhi was losing five trees every hour.

On Friday, the bench, also comprising justice Augustine George Masih, took up DTA’s response and said, “We want to know how DTA is functioning. Has it carried out any census of trees?” The court cited Section 7 of DTPA, 1994 (or is it 1995), which says “carrying out census of the existing trees” and “preservation of all trees” in Delhi is one of the functions of DTA.

“We intend to pass an order that no permission for tree cutting shall be passed unless it is vetted by this expert body. Unless there is a record of the number of trees, nothing can be done. Has this been undertaken? It was the duty of DTA to do this under the Act,” the court said.

The bench asked senior advocate Guru Krishnakumar, who was assisting the court as amicus, to indicate whether there should be a threshold, such as cutting of 100 or more trees, when an issue can be sent for consideration to the expert body. “Considering the diminishing green cover, we are considering whether a body of experts should consider every permission for felling of trees. We will pass orders that no permission for tree felling shall be passed unless vetted by this body. Some threshold can be fixed and DTA will have to comply with the recommendation made by the expert body,” the court said.

Justice Oka, who has previously served as chief justice of the Karnataka high court, said that Karnataka has an expert body which considers each tree felling proposal. The bench said that the expert body would consider the number of trees that need to be cut and the variety of trees to be planted under compensatory afforestation, and added, “We do not think DTA has this kind of an expertise.”

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Aishwarya Bhati appearing for DTA, said details have been provided in its affidavit filed late Thursday evening. The bench posted the matter for consideration on November 29 as details about what DTA has done were not made available to it.

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In another matter brought before the same bench by the resident welfare association of Inderpuri, opposing the felling of 50 trees by Indian Railways for construction a foot overbridge for two-wheelers, the court directed both the Railways and the Delhi government to ensure no tree is cut for the project. It directed the station house officers (SHO) of Naraina and Inderpuri to visit the site to find out whether any trees have been felled or felling was in progress.

Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared along with advocate Manan Verma in the application against DTA, said that a census of trees in Delhi has not been carried out except by private individuals who did so in a limited area on a small scale.

The amicus suggested that the use of satellite imagery or drones could be employed for this purpose as otherwise it would be a time-consuming task.

A few months ago, the court had constituted a body of three experts – former principal chief conservator of forests Sunil Limaye, former IFS officer Ishwar Singh, and Pradeep Kishen, author and environmental activist – to recommend developing a scientific approach for improving tree cover that is sustainable.

At present, the court is monitoring instances of tree felling not just in the Capital but also in the Taj Trapezium Zone (TTZ), an area of 10,400 square kilometres around the Taj Mahal. In 2015, the Supreme Court had ordered that no tree should be cut in TTZ without prior permission from the court as a measure to secure the ecology and prevent degradation of environment surrounding the protected Mughal-era monument.

Dealing with two separate applications demanding an independent agency to assess the extent of trees cut in Mathura and Vrindavan, the bench proposed a similar arrangement to conduct a tree census and a monitoring mechanism to prevent illegal felling of trees.

The applications indicated that forest cover in TTZ had drastically reduced by 9% over the years. The bench agreed to take up the issue on Friday and said, “Prima facie we are of the view that there has to be a census of trees in TTZ area and there has to be a mechanism to keep a vigil to ensure there is no illegal felling of trees.”

Senior advocate ADN Rao, assisting as amicus curiae in the TTZ matter, suggested that once the modality of a census is worked out, the local SHO can be made liable to ensure compliance. The application said that the forest cover in Agra according to the Forest Survey of India (FSI) fell from 6.78% to 6.5 % between 2015 and 2021. A slight decline was also seen in Etah and Mathura districts falling within TTZ.

The court had previously said that efforts must be made to save every single tree as citizens have a fundamental right under Article 21 to live in a pollution-free environment.