NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has expressed its concern over the cutting down of fully grown trees and said that it would be logical and prudent to transplant such trees instead of cutting them down and the ‘self-defeating exercise’ by the Forest Department 'needs to be arrested at the earliest'.
Justice Najmi Waziri, while dealing with a contempt plea concerning the preservation of trees, noted the petitioner's claim that a tree is cut down every hour in Delhi under official sanction and sought information from the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) on the number of trees that were permitted to be cut down in the last three year.
The contempt plea by Neeraj Sharma, represented by advocate Aditya N Prasad, pertains to the trees in the Vikas Marg area in East Delhi. Justice Waziri, in the order, emphasised the importance of even a solitary tree in any neighborhood and stated that compensatory afforestation which is a 'geographically distant and nascent compensatory plantation can hardly be of any respite'.
"This is a worrying issue because on the one side endeavour is said to be underway to maintain the green cover of Delhi while simultaneously fully grown trees are allowed to be cut down. This self-defeating exercise by the Forest Department needs to be arrested at the earliest," said the court.