On Tuesday, a resident of Himachal Apartments in Dwarka’s Sector 5 was alarmed when he saw several trees had been felled on a nearby plot.
When he took his dog out for a walk the next morning, he claimed, he found a bulldozer clearing up a portion of the plot. “I immediately informed the Delhi Forest and Wildlife Department and Delhi Police. The officers came to the spot within 30 minutes and called senior Central Public Works Department (CPWD) officers on the site,” said Chetan Sharma, 38.
Sahil Lochhab, a forest beat officer in charge of the matter, confirmed the issue was brought to notice after the resident contacted them via a helpline. “The land belongs to the National Institute of Immunology. The tree-felling activity was carried out as part of constructing a new government building structure,” Lochhab said.
The Forest Department has deployed personnel overnight to monitor the site and a probe has been launched in the matter. Amit Gemawat, DCF West confirmed that a case has been registered under DPTA (Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994).
“We do not have a confirmation about how many trees have been illegally cut. We are checking the girth size to determine that. A heavy penalty will be imposed on the people concerned,” Lochhab told The Indian Express. According to sources, over 50 trees of different species have been allegedly cut.
Section 9 of the DPTA mandates that an application has to be submitted to the tree officers concerned before felling a tree. The decision by the officer is required to be provided within 60 days. For instances where more than 50 trees need to be felled, permission needs to be sought by the Supreme Court-enabled Central Empowered Committee, as per an SC directive last December.
Expressing shock on the trees being felled, Sharma said, “Till yesterday, we could not even imagine entering the land because of the density of trees along with shrubs and a variety of grasses. It was like a mini-forest; there were around 30-40 bird species…but everything changed overnight. I woke up to see it disappear.”
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