Environmentalists raise concern over assessment of Delhi’s forest cover

NEW DELHI: Environmentalists have raised doubts over the findings of the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) on Delhi’s growing forest cover, after it was revealed that at least 77,000 trees were either chopped or transplanted in Delhi in the last three years.

According to the data submitted by the Delhi’s Forest Department to the Delhi High Court, in the last three years, the Delhi Forest Department authorised permission to remove or transplant at least 77,000 trees, or three trees every hour, for development projects in the city. In contrast, according to an ISFR study released on January 13, 2022, by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Government of India, Delhi’s green cover has increased from 21.88 per cent to 23.06 per cent of its geographical area in the last two years. According to Bhavreen Kandhari, an environmental activist, the reported green gains are mostly due to the Forest Survey of India’s problematic redefinition of the word forest. As a result, more clear areas will be counted as forest, such as tea gardens, coconut plantations, built-up areas, desert scrub, and some golf courses.

Ravina Kohli, an environmental activist has emphasised how Delhi, being one of the most polluted cities in the world needs all the possible green cover that it has; development at the cost of environment is a ‘lose-lose’ situation for all. She also mentioned that transplanting trees is a failure on the part of the government, given the way it is being carried out.

Providing a counter-argument, Vijay Dhasmana, another environmentalist, has said that while tree or spice plantation, farm land, coconut plantation, etc. do count as green cover, they can’t be called forest.