FSI said that the authorities “grossly underreported” on the felling of trees carried out in February this year for the construction of a road project in Satbari.

The FSI report, a copy of which HT has seen, said, “These differences clearly indicate that the number of trees proposed for felling and number of trees actually felled were grossly underreported. Similarly, the number of trees reported to be felled is less than half the number estimated by FSI.” According to DFD, 523 trees inside RFA and 222 trees outside RFA were cut.

The top court in May this year directed FSI to conduct a scientific study to ascertain the number of trees while hearing a contempt petition filed by a Delhi resident Bindu Kapurea. The petition claimed more than 1,100 trees were cut. However, DDA denied this claim.

Last month, the top court sought an authenticated report from the Delhi lieutenant governor (LG) VK Saxena, who is the chairman of DDA, on the information within his knowledge about the exact timing of felling of trees and whether he was aware that the cutting of trees required prior permission from the court.

The affidavit filed by the LG claimed only 642 trees were cut. He said that, according to DDA records, the argument put forth by the contempt petitioner of over 1,100 trees being cut was not correct. According to him, 174 trees in non-forest area and 468 in forest area were chopped. The LG further stated that he was not aware of the fact that permission of the court was needed to chop trees in the ridge since, during his visit to the site on February 3, he claimed that nobody pointed out to him about such a requirement. He also said that he came to know about the illegal felling only in June, well after the fact.

But, on October 23, the top court cast serious doubts over a submission by the LG that he was made aware of the tree-felling only on June 10. A communication addressed by DDA vice chairman to LG emerged which clearly showed that LG was made aware of the tree-felling as early as on April 12

The FSI report sparked a political row in the city.

Meanwhile, Delhi urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj alleged that the FSI report clearly shows that the tree felling was carried out on the direction of the LG. “The actual number of trees illegally cut by DDA allegedly on directions of LG is 1,670. The DDA under the LG is manipulating the Supreme Court. The forest department is manipulating the Supreme Court and the Delhi Police is pressurizing and harassing the petitioners,” he posted on X.

“The claims of the DDA and LG is that the executive engineer, assistant engineer, junior engineer level officers are responsible. Can these small officers be so powerful? Can outgoing Hon’ble CJI buy this lame argument today?,” the post added.

FSI’s report may further strengthen the claim to pursue contempt proceedings against the concerned officials in DDA and DFD as the matter is still pending before the court. As a result of the loss of tree cover, FSI calculated that the “carbon stock loss” for the 2.32 hectare area is estimated to be 477.99 tonne of carbon dioxide.

The FSI report revealed another “shocking” fact that DFD even gave wrong figures about the total trees still standing in the area falling under ridge. As per its enumeration, presently there are 166 trees inside RFA and 1,488 outside RFA. However, DFD told FSI that the total trees standing are 106 inside RFA and 200 outside RFA.

Accusing the DFD of reporting “wrong” number of standing trees, the report said, “Standing trees are still standing and can be counted by anyone any number of times. How can the number of standing trees given by Delhi Forest Department differ from the number of trees actually standing on the ground?”

Pointing to “systemic deficiencies” leading to this mismatch, FSI said that the difference arose because, while counting trees, DFD did not mark the boundary of the project area on the ground. “It is common sense that enumeration should be done inside project area, and to understand that, marking of boundary on field is essential,” the report said. To be sure, the guidelines issued in this regard by the ministry of environment forest and climate change (MoEFCC) do not “explicitly state” such a requirement to be followed on the ground before enumeration.

It noted another lapse -- the tree enumeration report was not verified by officers as the documents provided to FSI had no signatures on them. “This is pointing to some systemic deficiencies. Clear prescriptions are required that all enumerations need to be done by the Forest Department officials and test-checked by their senior officials otherwise such incidents will be repeated,” the report said.

FSI conducted its study by identifying the area cleared using high resolution satellite data and estimated number of felled trees using sampling design by laying out sample plots around the right of way (RoW) on the project site.

DDA claimed that the road in question -- from Gaushala Road (located at Main Chhattarpur Road) -- was necessary to connect vital institutions such as SAARC University and CAPFIMS multi-specialty hospital. The cutting of trees was undertaken from February 16 to 26 this year, much before DDA filed an application in the top court seeking permission for tree-felling. In March, the court refused to permit the tree-felling and asked DDA to re-examine its proposal. By then, the trees had already been cut, and this was not told to the court. It was only in May that Kapurea approached the top court through advocate Manan Verma and showed how the court was taken for a ride by DDA.

DDA claimed that its internal inquiry found that Manoj Kumar Yadav, the executive engineer wrote to the contractor for felling trees “on his own accord” and blamed him along with two assistant engineers, Pawan Kumar and Ayush Saraswat for acts of omission. However, the top court observed that these officers seem to be “scapegoats” as permission for felling these trees could not have come without the knowledge and approval from the top.