Delhi ‘greenest’ metro city in country: AAP govt tells SC
The July 11 affidavit stated that Delhi is the greenest metropolitan city in the country with the green cover showing a significant rise from 10.2% in 2001 to 23.06% in 2021 through a successful model of sustainable development
After being slammed for its “lacklustre” approach in enhancing the green cover in the Capital, it emerged on Wednesday that the Delhi government had filed an affidavit before another bench of the top court hearing the contempt petition against illegal felling of trees in the Delhi Ridge, informing it of the steps taken to enhance the city’s green cover.
The affidavit, filed in July, was silent on the concrete steps taken to enhance green cover, but said that the tree cover in Delhi increased over the last two decades, making it the greenest metropolitan in the country.
On September 30, a bench of justices Abhay S Oka and Augustine George Masih pulled up the Delhi government for not showing compliance of its order dated June 26 seeking steps taken to enhance green cover in the city. The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) by public interest attorney MC Mehta on pollution in Delhi. In response, the Delhi government counsel Chirag M Shroff said that the affidavit was filed in a contempt petition being heard by a bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud.
The July 11 affidavit filed in the contempt case (Bindu Kapurea v Subhashish Panda) pointed out steps taken by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to enhance Delhi’s tree cover. It stated that Delhi is the greenest metropolitan city in the country with the green cover showing a significant rise from 10.2% in 2001 to 23.06% in 2021 through a successful model of sustainable development. The affidavit stated that the city had the highest per capita forest cover (11.95 sq m) among all metropolitan cities, with Kolkata (0.12 sq m) having the least, Bengaluru and Hyderabad faring better with 10.55 sq m and 10.47 sq m, and Mumbai and Chennai with 6.01 sq m and 2.61 sq m respectively.
The affidavit further stated that 1,700 acres of the Yamuna floodplain was converted to forests through compensatory plantation and afforestation against felling of trees for various development projects undertaken in the Capital.
To be sure, the issue of green cover has been contentious mainly because experts have pointed that India’s definition of forest cover includes plantations and orchards. The government considers any area of one hectare (ha) or more with at least 10% canopy cover, irrespective of land-use and ownership as a forest. This issue with the forest definition means that loss of ecologically rich natural forests is compensated on paper by showing plantations, parks, gardens, and other such features.
The court, in its order of June 26, directed the Delhi forest department to have a meeting with concerned civic agencies and the three court-appointed experts — former IFS officers Sunil Limaye, Ishwar Singh and Pradeep Kishen — and consider their recommendations for developing a scientific and targeted approach for improving tree cover that is sustainable.
Since then, the experts held three rounds of meetings with the Delhi government officials sharing suggestions on how to go about this process. Two meetings were also attended by the three lawyers assisting the court as amici curiae – senior advocates ADN Rao, S Guru Krishna Kumar and Anitha Shenoy -- who shared their suggestions.
On September 30, when the court took up the matter, it took up a status report filed by the Delhi government on September 21 which only gave details of the meetings conducted so far but no concrete proposals. Looking at this approach, the bench said, “A status report dated September 21, 2024 shows complete lack of interest shown by the principal secretary of the Delhi government and the forest department.”
In the suggestions by Ishwar Singh, one of the experts, it surfaced that a “Working Plan for Delhi” was being prepared by the Indian Forest Institute, Dehradun. As the court found no information about this proposal, the bench directed the secretary, forest department to file a personal affidavit revealing details about the working plan and concrete measures taken as per the suggestions of experts and amicus curiae.
The response of the Delhi forest department secretary is expected by October 15, before the matter is taken up on October 18. The secretary of the forest department will be present through video conference for the hearing.
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