Delhi’s forest dept excavates rail body project site to prove tree-felling claims
NEW DELHI: The state forest and wildlife department, in a rare move, has begun excavations across the site of the Bijwasan Rail Terminal Project in Dwarka’s Sector 21, in order to find the ‘roots’ of trees allegedly felled by the central rail development body.
The forest department had in January, received complaints of trees being felled in the area without permission, and even as site visits by the forest department have since then found 131 fully grown trees to either be damaged or felled, the Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA) has “failed to admit these offences”, resulting in the forest department launching this drive, officials aware of the matter said.
“It has come to our knowledge that a tree offence under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA) of 1994 has allegedly been committed by the Rail Land Development Authority by felling, cutting, removing or damaging approximately 131 fully grown trees without permission of competent authorities in the revenue village of Bijwasan
for the development of a railway station. Further, the agency has denied any kind of offence, but the offence has been proved by satellite images with time-lapse. Apart from it, the agency did not join the investigation in the matter laid down by law,” said a notice dated May 24, issued by Delhi’s deputy conservator of forests (west) to two forest guards, asking them to begin excavation work from Thursday.
When contacted, an RLDA official denied the claims and said only bushes were removed, “to make way for trucks to reach the site”.
The railway station area is undergoing an airport-style makeover through a public-private partnership (PPP) model, which will include a terminal station building spread over a 30,400sqm area, an air concourse across 12,500sqm and a circulating road network of 123,500 sqms.
The new Bijwasan railway station will also have eight platforms, instead of the existing two. The project was initially awarded to the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) in 2016, but the government body was shut down in October last year, and the project is now being executed by the RLDA.
“In order to establish the offence allegedly committed on the said patch of land, it is mandatory to find roots and other evidence from the land. Therefore, you are authorised to carry out digging under Section 31 (a) and (d) of the DPTA, 1994 at the alleged site on May 26, 8am onwards to find evidence to prove the claim of the alleged offence,” it added.
A senior forest official said several roots have already been found on the site on the first day of excavations. However, it was still at work to figure out the exact number of trees damaged or uprooted.
“This is a rare case, and these sections under the DPTA are rarely used. Since RLDA failed to show up at hearings and repeatedly denied the claims, we had to resort to this to prove the offence,” an official said.
This January, HT reported that locals from Shahabad Mohammadpur village in south-west Delhi on January 20 wrote to the forest department and the Delhi Police, alleging that more than 200 trees in the area were felled without the requisite permissions. A forest inspection the next day found that at least 18 trees had been uprooted or felled.
Himanshu Saini, one of the complainants at the time, said four hearings have been held since the complaint was filed, with RLDA failing to show up in the first hearing in early February and sending a junior-level staff member for the second.
“The forest department asked them to send a senior-level officer for the next hearing. But during the third hearing in March, the junior official sent a written reply and said he was not aware of the incident. In the fourth hearing in April, RLDA kept denying that they damaged or felled any trees, despite clear evidence at the site,” he said. A senior official was sent for the April hearing.
Naveen Solanki, another resident of Shahabad Mohammadpur village, who was present during the drive on Thursday, said several uprooted and damaged trees, along with their felled roots have been found already, with RLDA also refusing to remove any permanent settlements built as part of the project, despite forest department orders.
“They were asked to remove them in March itself, when a restraining order was issued, but this was not done either. Action against these huts will also be taken as per the forest department,” he said.
An RLDA official denied that any trees were felled for the project.
“Only bushes were removed, to make room for the trucks to reach the site. No trees were felled and no permission was sought during the project as the site was barren when the project began in 2016,” the official said.