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Gurgaon News - 2004

Real Estate : The root of the matter

Nandini Kulkarni loathes the scorching heat of the Capital. Not because of the ever-soaring mercury but because she — like half the population in the metropolis — suffers from a bronchial disease. “I usually get an asthmatic attack during the seasonal change and with the streets dug up at almost every corner to make way for either a construction of a flyover or the widening of a road, the intensity of the attack worsens. Even the AC in my car seems futile. What makes the situation worse is the disappearance of trees from the roadside. Delhi’s air is now more dry and polluted,” she says.

No doubt that the Capital’s landscape is being revamped — wider roads, pre-fabricated flyovers and the swanky Metro — promising to make commuting more smooth, faster and enjoyable but there are adverse fall-outs accompanying the development as well.

The loss
The city lost nearly 42,000 trees in the last five years. More precisely, the official figure states a loss of 12,278 during the year 2002-03. The heavy takers were National Highway Authority of India (5,500); Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (1,868); DDA (1,512) and the Delhi State Industrial Development Corporation (1,079). Says Anuj Dayal, Chief PRO, DMRC, “Since the inception of the DMRC projects in 1998, 6,000 trees have been axed. The most affected areas have been Civil Lines, Khyber Pass, Janakpuri, Shastri Park and some parts of CP.”

As for the MCD areas, nearly 2,000 trees fell in the last five years with the same number of casualties being reported from the PWD areas — mainly on the Ring Road and the outer Ring Road in South and South West Delhi. Says D. P. Singh, Director, Horticulture Department, MCD, “Most of the chopping took place for the Metro project. The recent loss has been on the stretch between Connaught Place and the Pusa Institute. MCD mostly undertakes project work like widening or tiling of roads in undeveloped areas of Delhi like in Najafgarh, Narela, Shahdara where the loss will not be more than 500.”

However, take some solace from this disheartening news: not all the trees that fell were necessarily fully grown. Informs A. K. Sinha, Conservator of Forests, Department of Forests and Wildlife, Govt. of NCT, Delhi, “Any plant that has a minimum of 15 cm girth is considered a tree. Thus, it is difficult to state how many were full-grown and how many low lying.”

Ramifications
Nevertheless, the difference is quite blatantly evident. Says Dr. Shyamala Mani, Co-ordinator, Centre for Environment Education, “Large scale deforestation has a significant effect especially on the number of rainy days a year and the instances of conventional rainfall in a city or town. Trees conserve moisture and, therefore, increase soil moisture leading to the cooling of soil around them. Hence, removing one tree can have an adverse effect, for instance, causing the soil to become parched and the microclimate hotter.”

Compensation
According to the Delhi Tree Preservation Act of 1995, 10 saplings need to be planted in lieu of each tree axed. This translates into roughly 4,20,000 saplings being planted in a phased manner as compensation for all the chopping that was carried out in the last five years. But the truth is, despite official claims, this enormous volume of saplings is not reflected in reality.

“Planting 10 in lieu of one is not possible always — mainly due to shortage of land at the construction site (which is often covered with concrete or tiles). Hence the figure has come down to 3,12,515 at present.” Despite this descend in the figure, the pitfall is a huge backlog. Both the DDA and PWD have to plant 20,000 trees each; DMRC around 70,000 but the lion’s share of planting almost one and a half lakh saplings lies with NHAI. “Our Forest Department has undertaken plantation work on behalf of the DMRC and almost half of the NHAI’s. We try to put pressure on the civic authorities by not giving any future permission to cut or prune unless they have cleared their backlogs,” says Sinha.

In fact, DMRC states that 26,000 trees were planted in advance before the start of their projects as compensatory afforestation. “We scientifically monitor noise and atmospheric pollution and we have found that there has been a 50 per cent drop in the pollution level around the Metro areas. In fact, the Metro has tried to save all eco-friendly types of trees and has transplanted over 3,000 trees.” These were mainly carried out in areas like Kakrola, Issapur, Rewala Khanpur and Gazipur. But the survival rate of transplantation is as low as 30 per cent.

Not just them...
Interestingly, there is a flip side too. Singh says, “I often receive complaints from the most posh colonies in Delhi about trees blocking their driveways. Or people developed allergies overnight or that there are serious chances of a tree falling right onto someone’s balcony! Most trees get chopped by residents (like in Vasant Kunj) because of the scarcity of car parking space. Moreover, there are a few commercial areas in Delhi too (like Kotla) where traders don’t let a sapling be planted in front of their shops as this may hamper their business.” Hence, one cannot necessarily blame everything on the civic authorities; there are others in the picture too.

So at the end, trees have been felled to make way for flyovers, subways, the Metro and wider roads and as the authorities claim — despite the huge backlog — there has been a compensatory drive too. All that the Delhiites can do is wait and watch these trees grow and flourish and make the Capital green once again.