13,000 trees felled in three years but only 67% compensated: CAG

NEW DELHI : More than 13,000 full grown trees were cut in the national Capital between April 2014 and March 2017 with the permission of the state forest department. But when it came to planting of saplings to compensate for the loss Delhi has suffered, the forest department fell short by nearly 67%, says the latest report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India.

The report has also warned that the pace with which Delhi’s forest cover is increasing the state won’t be able to achieve the target of 33% in the near future.

During 2014-15 to 2016-17, the three deputy conservator of forests together gave 750 permissions for felling 13,018 trees. But against the obligation to plant 65,095 saplings, as a part of the compensatory tree planting program in which the authorities have to plant five saplings for every tree felled, the department planted only 21,048 leaving a shortfall of 44,042 trees or 67%

Environmentalists have been raising these allegations for long claiming that felled trees were not being compensated. But now the CAG’S report has put the forest department in the dock.

“Although we know that trees which are cut down are not being compensated to the tune of 1:10, the statistics are just shocking and painful,” said Padmavati Dwivedi, a tree activist, who led the first tree census of Delhi a few years ago.

Section 10 of Delhi Preservation of Trees Act and government instructions state that for every tree felled the forest department will plant five saplings and the remaining five tree saplings will be planted by the agency which was allowed to cut the tree.

“There was failure of the forest department and permit holders to fulfill compensatory plantation obligation. Institutional permit holders failed to compensate for felling of trees as per their per- mit obligations,” the report says.

The CAG report has also raised serious questions on the efficacy and performance of Delhi government’s tree plantation programme.

“The reported tree plantation of 28.12 lakh during 2014-17 however could not lead to commensurate increase in area under tree and forest cover putting a question mark on the efficacy and performance of GNCTD’S tree plantation programme,” the report states.

Delhi could marginally increase the forest and tree cover during 2009-2017 from 20.20% in 2009 to 20.59% in 2017. “With this pace, it seems the department would nowhere be achieving the target of 25% or 33% in the foreseeable future,” the report said.

The India State of Forest Report 2017 released in January 2018 had said that even though the total forest cover and tree cover in Delhi, has gone up by 0.25% and 0.13%, respectively, the very dense forest cover declined from 6.94 sq km on 2015 to 6.72 sq km in 2017.

Trees to be planted 2014-15 2015-16 2016-17 Actually planted