Over 7,000 trees illegally felled, damaged in Delhi in a year, shows data

During 2021-22, more than 7,000 trees in the national capital Delhi were illegally felled, pruned, head-backed, or concretised, in violation of the law, a report by The Times of India stated on Monday.
 
This comes when a recent report stated that Delhi, followed by Kolkata and Mumbai, is the most polluted city in the world.
 
Last year between January 1 and June 30, Delhi's forest department received over 4,100 complaints in the south forest division of trees being illegally damaged in violation of the provisions of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994, TOI reported.

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A total of 637 cases for illegal damage to trees were lodged in 2021-22, and a cumulative fine of Rs 3.8 crore was imposed by the department.
 
The disposal rate of complaints was slow, as around 43 per cent and 53 per cent were pending in the year 2021-22 and 2020-21, respectively, the report stated.
 
The violators include private individuals, organisations, and government departments.
 
A total of 396 cases were lodged under the DTPA in 2020-21, as complaints stated that over 8,1000 trees were either concretised or cut, pruned, and head-backed without legal permission, TOI reported.
 
Only five out of 106 cases lodged under the act in the north forest division that year were disposed of, while the rest remained under process, TOI reported citing the official data. Most cases were transferred from the west forest division, data stated.
 
A tree can be felled, pruned, and head-backed only with the permission of the forest department officials, according to the law. Meanwhile, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) in a 2013 order has banned concretisation of trees within a metre’s radius of the trunk of a tree.
 
The forest department in the past three years gave permission to cut or transplant about 77,000 trees, or three trees per hour, for development work in the national capital, a report filed by the department in the Delhi High Court stated.