a forest officer disclosed, “We have received 40 proposals from construction companies to plant trees, nine in the Central Division, 12 in the South and 19 in the West. Several projects were approved for transplant a few months back but construction companies were waiting for a panel of technical experts. With the panel finalized recently, project developers can now choose an agency for the work. The agencies will follow all the technical specifications for plantation in Delhi.
For the Dwarka Expressway project, officials revealed that around 12,000 trees have already been transplanted and their survival rate was around 84%. He said around 1,000 more are yet to be transferred. Forest department also gave permission Delhi Jal Board To do some transplants in West Circle.
Other projects that will require tree transplantation include the Netaji Nagar redevelopment project, where the Delhi government recently allowed transplantation of 1,314 trees. More than 1,800 trees are also expected to be planted for the Central Vista project.
Meanwhile, some of the projects awaiting the forest department’s approval for the transplant include the redevelopment plan for the New Delhi railway station. “The clearance for transplanting around 1,000 trees at the New Delhi Railway Station redevelopment site is in process,” the official said. “Similarly, for Delhi Urban Extension Road (UER) 2, an application is pending to shift around 2,000 trees.”
The official said it was mandatory for each construction project to initially disclose the number of trees that would be affected. “This data, once provided, is assessed and once cleared by the Delhi government, transplantation of affected trees can be done. This figure may increase or decrease depending on the tree species and their survival potential. However, invasive species are not transplanted at all.”
The tree transplant policy was notified last year. It states that at least 80% of the trees affected by a development or construction project are to be transplanted and 80% of them should avoid transplantation. Simultaneously, compensatory planting of 10 saplings for each tree will continue.
“The trees should be properly protected and none should be removed unnecessarily for development projects. When on-site conservation is not possible, scientific transplantation of affected trees, rather than harvesting them, should become the new norm.
The policy notifies a proper procedure to be followed while shifting trees from the project site to any other place for transplantation.
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