Spotlight
New
Delhi, 13 July 2018
Delhi Exemplar
TREES ARE NOT DISPENSABLE
By Proloy Bagchi
When things reach an edge, Delhi’s civil
society comes together to rally and protest for public causes. In 2011, the
rampant corruption in the Manmohan Singh government threw up a Gandhian Anna
Hazare who was agitating in Maharashtra for years against local corruption and
then came to Delhi with support of various civil society leaders.
He evoked tremendous response in his
protracted agitation, including a prolonged fast, supported by unorganised
members of public, forced the government to assure that his main demand of
creation of a Lok Pal would soon be met by suitable legislative action. That,
however, turned out to be ruse as a Lok Pal is yet to be appointed. The
movement, however, gave birth to Aam Aadmi Party, which has been ruling in
Delhi with a rather scratchy performance for around four years.
Again in December 2012 when “Nirbhaya”, a
young girl, a physiotherapy intern, was brutally raped and physically abused by
the staff of a commuter bus which eventually led to her untimely death the
civil society of Delhi again rallied round for greater safety of women on Delhi
streets. It forced the government to enact a series of stringent anti-rape laws.
The laws may not have reduced the incidence of rapes, but the civil society’s
rallies and demands in unison sensitised the administrations of the entire
nation against such horrendous crimes against women. On account of that
unrelenting movement, the accused in the Nirbhaya case have since been awarded
death penalty.
Now once more, as the wellbeing of people of
Delhi has been threatened by the proposal to cut down as many as 14,000 trees
for the so-called re-development of quite a few South Delhi residential
colonies, including Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar and Nauroji Nagar, they came
out in strength to strongly protest against the decision of the government.
The protests were so strong, especially
because of the rising pollution and temperature in Delhi that the government
had to back off. The court and the National Green Tribunal, where the matter
had been taken, imposed a stay on further cutting down of trees. The Minister
for Housing and Urban Affairs ordered that no tree would be cut and asked for redesign
of re-development plans of the long-established colonies.
Such is the power of the civil society when
it chooses to rise in protest. One wonders what kind of planners have been
engaged who seem to have been oblivious of the current extremely high level of
pollution in the city and have suggested felling of as many as 14,000 trees
existing in these colonies for decades. This after the Delhi Forest Department
indiscriminately allowed massive tree-felling in Delhi.
Something obviously is wrong with the Forest
Department of Delhi Administration. Reports indicate that in the last seven
years it has given permission to fell more than 44,000 trees and now it had
again permitted felling of as many as 14,000 trees for the so-called
redevelopment of South Delhi colonies. The Department officers seem to have
lost all sense of proportion. Whenever proposals are sent to it for felling of
large number of trees they impose only token cuts allowing large-scale felling.
They have displayed utter apathy towards the health and wellbeing of Delhi’s
citizens and their environment.
One imagines their mechanical way of
functioning, unless checked, will convert Delhi into a desert in not too
distant future. Besides, the City is already highly polluted with PM-10 and PM
2.5 levels way beyond normal. Such massive tree-felling operations will greatly
enhance atmospheric pollution. The City’s citizens are already choking and with
so many trees gone they would be exposed to untold health hazards.
It seems, none ever pays attention to the
welfare of the citizens -- neither the government environmental conservation
agencies nor the bureaucrats or city planners. They are only interested in
building concrete jungles replacing all greenery. Their argument that
compensatory plantation will be carried out has proven to be only a ruse.
Besides, saplings cannot be substituted for full grown decades-old tall trees
with widely spread–out canopies. It is only the canopies which intercept the
particulates and also provide shade to the commuters walking on the hot asphalt
in summers.
In accordance with rules, for every tree cut
down, ten need to be planted. Often so much of land is not available in and
around the site of the cut-down tree. The compensatory plantation is thus
carried out wherever land is available, which is generally in the outskirts of
the city. This does not help in any way the localities where mass-scale
tree-felling is undertaken. Besides, authorities often do not plant native
trees; they go in for decorative or ornamental trees which are of little help
in conserving the environment. Compensatory plantation is actually perpetration
of a fraud on the people. A rate of survival of 30% of planted trees is
considered good but generally only 10% survive.
Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, a strenuous study
conducted by him, says “the concept of compensatory plantation is fundamentally
flawed. The land has poor quality soil -- the reason why it is vacant in the
first place. And the agencies are interested only in meeting targets.” The
forest departments’ business is to protect forests and trees. They do not
pursue compensatory plantation with due diligence and yet they indulge in
large-scale felling of trees.
Translocation of trees, a practice that is
being bandied about, is also not very successful. The success ratio has been
poor in trans-locating fully grown trees with their entire ecosystems of
parasites, insects and animals mainly because of lack of adaptability in many
accompanying organisms and unfamiliar as well as strange, sometimes even
hostile, ecosystems of the new surroundings. Besides, removal of a fully grown
tree from its moorings inflicts a severe shock on it which alone sometimes is
cause of its end.
Though already a few thousand trees have been
felled in some of the ear-marked colonies yet Delhi’s environment has been
saved for the time being. Now that the Minister concerned himself has taken
matters in his own hands, the redevelopment projects are likely to get
drastically modified. Credit has to be given to the city’s civil society which
did not take the decisions of the authorities lying down. They rose up in
protest and forced the authorities to re-examine their decision.
Numerous other cities are not as lucky as
their civil societies seldom rise against local decisions that hurt their
interests. But in places such as Bhopal severe protests by civil society forced
the government to trash the builder-oriented City Development Plan 2005.
Likewise, in 2015 widespread protests forced the government to change the site
of the smart city as thousands of trees were to be felled destroying the city’s
green ambiance.
Nonetheless, urban areas need to draw a
lesson from Delhi and ensure that their health and wellbeing is given priority
over the dreaded word ‘vikas’
(development) and hence whenever there is a confrontation between the two they
have to stand for their own interests. There can be no trade-off between
development and environment.---INFA
(Copyright, India
News & Feature Alliance)
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