80 per cent trees felled for infra work to be transplanted in Delhi

The Delhi cabinet approved on Friday rules making it mandatory for at least 80% of trees affected by any development project to be transplanted, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal announced, in a move meant to address concerns regarding the city’s green cover.

The rule is a part of a new tree transplantation policy that is one of seven initiatives announced by Kejriwal earlier this week to combat air pollution. The action plan includes a separate strategy for dust control, management of 13 pollution hotspots, a war room for real-time monitoring of pollution levels and efficacy of measures to fight pollution, and a mobile app for registering complaints.

“This is the first-of-its-kind tree transplantation policy in Delhi. We will be the first state in the country to implement this policy,” said Kejriwal during a press briefing online on Friday evening.

Tree transplantation is known to be difficult. Experts say only a few species survive the process, which involves special machines to carefully remove trees along with some soil and the roots before they are moved to their alternate destination.

The government, he added, will come out with a list of empanelled technical agencies that will carry out the transplantation and ensure the moved trees survive. “Services of the empanelled agencies can be availed for all projects that would affect trees. Payment to the agency will have to be done after one year of transplant, only after ensuring that 80% of the transplanted trees have survived,” he said.

If a project affects 100 trees, 80 of these need to be transplanted, according to the new rule. Of the 80, 64 will need to survive.

Any project by an individual or private entity that requires less than 10 trees to be cut will be exempted from the policy, which will now need to be notified to come into force. The policy will be in addition to an existing rule that requires a developer to plant ten saplings for every tree that needs to be felled for a project.

Kejriwal also said that a dedicated tree transplantation cell will be formed by the Delhi government and local committees, which will include government officials, citizens and resident welfare associations to monitor transplanted trees and certify that the task has been done with due diligence.

For each project, the listed agencies will have to conduct a study to ascertain suitable locations and any other factor involved, said a senior government official, asking not to be named. “The government has a plan of adding trees along several arterial roads also there is a list of spaces reserved for forestation drives. The list will keep evolving with time,” this person added.

The policy was last tabled in a Cabinet meeting in May but it was held for further deliberations, said a second senior government official who did not wish to be identified. Between February 28 and March 15 last year, the draft of the policy was shared in public domain for suggestions and comments.

C R Babu, professor emeritus at Centre for Environmental Management of Degraded Ecosystem in Delhi University, said transplantation is the last option in any effort to conserve or secure greens in urban centres.

“It is not an alternative option. Only young and shallow-rooted species are known to survive after being transplanted. Trees with a deep taproot system cannot survive translocation. The extent of mortality of a transplanted tree in case of old and full-grown trees is 99%. Only some ficus species such as peepal, bargad and gular can survive,” he added.