This story is from August 20, 2019

Delhi: With just 2,500 saplings planted so far, forest department searches for answers

: The national capital’s apex greening department — the forest department — is not just woefully understaffed, but it is also running out of land to carry out greening activities
Delhi: With just 2,500 saplings planted so far, forest department searches for answers
Forest dept has been able to plant only 2,500 saplings, citing lack of adequate land
NEW DELHI: The national capital’s apex greening department — the forest department — is not just woefully understaffed, but it is also running out of land to carry out greening activities. As a result, annual greening targets and a number of court directions are pending, including a recent Delhi high court order wherein one of the parties was asked to plant 1.4 lakh saplings but only 2,500 could be planted.

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The forest department, in a submission to the high court, said that they are short of land, particularly in the central Ridge and will only be able to carry out greening activities in the southern Ridge.
Forest officials told TOI that while they are able to meet their annual greening targets at present, they have approached other greening agencies in Delhi for additional land to be able to comply with the directions and meet their targets. Last year, the forest department’s annual greening target of 4.2 lakh was completed with around 4.5 lakh saplings being planted on the southern Ridge. This year, too, a major chunk of the 4.3 lakh target is in the southern Ridge, which will 2.5 lakh saplings being planted.
A forest official said for other parts of Delhi, they are primarily relying on ‘vacancy’ filling — replacing dead trees and saplings that did not survive. “The only other locations left in Delhi where we have jurisdiction are the Yamuna floodplain and the southern Ridge,” said a senior forest official.
For compensatory afforestation, agencies are provided land, which the department says has helped them to allow projects to go through. However, for court directions they are left with few options. “We have informed Delhi high court that only southern Ridge is a possibility for plantation. If saplings are planted too close to each other, they will not receive adequate sunlight and will not survive,” said the official.

Delhi aims to plant nearly 24 lakh saplings this year through 19 greening agencies, including the forest department, DDA, MCD, DJB and others. The forest department says they have approached the education department, flood and irrigation control department as well as NTPC for additional land.
“We aim to distribute saplings in schools and colleges as the survival rate is high there since each school has a boundary wall to prevent animals from grazing on them. We will also plant 10,000 saplings with NTPC, but are looking to finalise more greening options,” said a forest official.
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