New Delhi: The Delhi Metro, with a network of 377 km, is inarguably one of India’s most efficient suburban rail systems, connecting areas on different ends of the national capital region (NCR).
It’s also an asset to Delhi’s environment, offsetting carbon emissions to the tune of 36.2 lakh tonnes over the past 10 years.
Amid the ongoing Aarey Dairy Colony controversy, which brought Mumbaikars out in droves to protest against the felling of around 2,700 trees for a Mumbai Metro project, the Delhi Metro claims to have pulled off the project with careful planning that addresses multiple concerns associated with deforestation as well as other environment-related aspects.
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Deforestation, reforestation
Each time a tree is felled for the suburban railway network, the Metro authorities have to pay compensation to the Delhi Forest Department, which then carries out compensatory afforestation.
A total of 10 saplings are planted for every tree cut, said a senior official of the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), a joint venture of the union territory administration and the central government.
According to DMRC data accessed by ThePrint, the Metro concessionaire planted over 5 lakh saplings to compensate for the 43,727 trees cut for the three phases of the network — that is 11 times.
These 43,727 trees were felled against an allowance for 56,307, but the DMRC amended its plans to avoid cutting 12,580 trees, officials said.
The trees planted, according to DMRC data, have sucked up 1.02 lakh tonnes of CO2 over the past 10 years and given out 1.07 lakh tonnes of oxygen.
Another 35 lakh tonnes of carbon emissions were offset through the use of clean alternatives like solar power and reducing commuters’ reliance on fossil fuels, the DMRC data stated.
Officials of the DMRC environment section said they made a conscious effort to minimise environmental damage as they pushed forth with the Metro project.
For example, a depot at Khyber Pass, which caters to Yellow Line (between HUDA City Centre and Samaypur Badli), was built at a landfill site to avoid tree-felling. This required the DMRC to remove all the garbage from the site, and laying it with good earth for the tracks to be laid.
However, such measures could only be taken in areas where alignment was even minutely possible, DMRC spokesperson Anuj Dyal added. Areas where alignment was not possible, trees had to be felled, he said.
‘Green buildings’
A DMRC official said all the stations being built under the ongoing Phase III have been designed as “green buildings” with specific provisions for conservation of energy and water, fewer emissions, and waste management.
They have been equipped with more plants, water-efficient fixtures and low-VOC paints, that is, paint with fewer volatile organic compounds that are harmful to human health and the environment.
Furthermore, Dyal said, when certain areas needed to be “dewatered” for the construction of underground Metro lines, the water was shared with the Chandrawal Water Works for the revival of lakes in North Delhi. “Similarly, we recharged groundwater in the area again in the next phase,” he added.
However, experts are split on the initiatives taken by the DMRC to mitigate damage.
Environmentalist Chandra Bhushan, the former deputy director general at the Centre for Science and Environment, said the steps taken by the concessionaire were a case of short-term pain that lead to long-term gain.
“If Metro is helping reduce the number of cars on the roads, it is anyway helping address growing vehicular pollution,” he added. “So my views are slightly different from most environmental experts… I feel if some trees have to be done away with for this, it is worth it in the larger sense perhaps.”
A senior fellow at the Delhi-based TERI School of Advanced Studies, who has been engaged with the Indian Railway Board, differed.
“I am not sure we can say the environmental policies were being implemented, given that a huge number of trees had been done away with by the DMRC… Similar claims made about tree planting at Barakhamba Road, for example, don’t seem to have seen the light of day,” the fellow added. “So, I am not sure if those planted as compensation actually end up even making up for the loss.”
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1. What about PM2.5 pollution? PM2.5 exposure is the pollutant most likely to lead to human sickness and death. Every 10 microgram reduction in PM2.5 can increase life expectancy by 6 months!
2. What about O2 production by trees? How will oxygen be replenished if trees are gone?
CO2 reduction is 5% of the benefit, even if you take the offset numbers seriously (conversion from private vehicle to metro). 95% of the benefits are due to PM2.5 absorption, O2 generation, temperature reduction. These are all quantifiable.
The writer should also have written about the survival of no of trees out of 5,35,150 saplings and at what stages of life they are in (how old they are in). Planting saplings only is not enough. They become important only when they have survived for 7-8 years, when their roots are firmly in place within the soil of that area.
Similarly, claims of 36.2 lakh tonnes is laughable? It’s spread over 10 years as the writer says. So, the no doesn’t present full picture. Did the writer check per year no? Also, out of 36.2 lakh tonnes in 10 years, how much has been on account of new saplings and how much is due to other initiatives like solar etc? Similarly, it must also be checked from independent experts like people from IIT about the impact on environment due to new saplings (will be negligible) in their early years.
Ms. Bedi must find out, will get amazing (and eyeopening) information. Claims of DMRC hardly gets investigated and everything appears goodie-goodie. Therefore, it’s more imperative to get into the details which are missing in this article.
Those of us who have seen saplings been planted in small towns, will know that not 10, but even 100 saplings are not enough to compensate for one felled tree… UNLESS, a foolproof iron grill fencing is made around each sapling, right from the ground to upto a height of, say, five feet. Reason? The cattle, and goats and donkeys will chew up the tender sapling as soon as they can. If the authorities can ensure the protection, then they may plant even 3 instead of 10 saplings.
Good initiative by Delhi Metro. No doubt, metro rails contribute their mite to reduction of carbon footprint. I have two simple questions: Does Delhi have any space to palnt ten saplings in place of 43000 plus trees cut? As a regular visitor to Delhi, I see it as mostly a concrete jungle. Second, how does one estimate that 36 lakh tons of carbon was sucked out? Any scientifically acceptable method is available to support this determination?