New Delhi: A contempt petition filed by 62-year-old Bindu Kapurea, a resident of Vasant Kunj, has led to the Supreme Court coming down heavily on government authorities in Delhi, including Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, for illegal felling of trees in the reserve forest area of the Southern Ridge for construction of a road.
The apex court Friday remarked that a “cover up” was going on regarding the role played by Delhi LG in directing large scale illegal felling of trees in southern ridge’s Satbari areas.
The court also warned that it will consider issuing a contempt notice to the Delhi LG, according to LiveLaw. A bench of justices Abhay S. Oka and Ujjal Bhuyan, according to media reports, also highlighted “non-application of mind” in the way Delhi LG purportedly directed the removal of 422 trees following his visit to the site on 3 February.
In May this year, Kapurea, through her advocate Manan Verma, filed a contempt petition in SC against Delhi Development Authority (DDA) Vice-Chairman Subhasish Panda for massive felling of trees in the Southern Ridge area.
During the hearings, the court observed that “more than 633 trees were felled” for the construction of a 10.5 km road network to improve connectivity to the newly developed government establishments in Maidan Garhi and neighbouring areas.
An affidavit filed by the DDA V-C in June in the case stated that 642 trees — 468 on forest land and 174 on DDA or non-forest land — were felled in Satbari in February, weeks before the SC rejected DDA’s application to cut trees for the road widening project. ThePrint has accessed the affidavit.
ThePrint explains how DDA went ahead with felling of trees without necessary permissions and why the SC has questioned the Delhi LG’s role in the matter.
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Trees felled for road-widening
The felling of trees was necessitated for a 10.5 km integrated road development project to improve connectivity to the newly constructed around Rs 2,200-crore Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS) and other government establishments such as SAARC University located in Maidan Garhi, Sahapur and Satbari.
“The entire alignment of the road is over an area of 8.7 ha (hectare), out of which 3.60 ha land falls in Ridge Reserve forest in Southern Ridge, 0.968 ha (hectare) in Morphological Ridge and 4 ha falls in non-forest land,” says a report by Delhi government’s forest and wildlife department on 1 July.
The project includes an approximately 2 km-long Gaushala Road. For the widening of this road, a large number of trees were allegedly cut in the protected forest area between 16 and 26 February this year allegedly without necessary permission.
The trees were cut weeks before the DDA moved an application in the SC on 1 March, 2024, seeking permission to fell trees. As per the preliminary report submitted by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to the SC on 19 June, 1,051 trees were proposed to be felled.
Kapurea, who visited the site on Gaushala Road on 24 February, 2024, after hearing about massive felling of trees, filed a complaint with Green Helpline of the Delhi government’s Department of Forests and Wildlife, according to her petition. She was informed by the government officials that trees were cut as per permission given on 14 February.
On 4 March, the SC rejected DDA’s application to fell trees in the area for the project.
Following this, Kapurea filed a contempt petition against DDA V-C in the apex court in May, her petition showed.
Though DDA V-C’s affidavit states that 642 trees were cut, the SC had asked the FSI to ascertain the exact number of trees felled.
In its preliminary report submitted to the apex court in May, the FSI stated that around 750 trees were felled and reportedly sought time to give a detailed report.
Did DDA take permission before cutting trees?
The DDA required permission from the Delhi government for felling trees for the integrated road development project under The Delhi Preservation of Trees Act of 1994 (for trees located on non-forest land). It also needed permission from the Centre under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, and the Supreme Court for felling trees in the Ridge area.
In August 2023, the DDA initiated the process to seek approval from the SC through the Ridge Management Board which, in turn, sent it to the court-appointed Central Empowered Committee (CEC) as per the laid down procedure. The CEC submitted its report to the Supreme Court in December last year.
In December, it applied to the ministry of environment, forest and climate change for permissioned under the Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980, following the Ridge Management Board’s decision in August. It was granted an in-principle approval (stage 1) on 1 March on “specific conditions”.
However, before the DDA sought SC’s permission on 1 March, it had reportedly already felled a large number of trees.
Dismissing DDA’s application, the apex court in its 4 March order said, “We direct the DDA to re-examine the proposal by employing the experts in the field. The exercise to be undertaken by the DDA is necessary for ensuring that while public work is carried out, a minimum number of trees are required to be felled. The said approach is not reflected from the application made by the DDA.”
In her contempt petition against DDA V-C, Kapurea’s advocate cited the SC’s 4 March order.
On 16 May, the court issued a suo motu notice of criminal contempt to DDA V-C. It had earlier issued a civil contempt against the DDA V-C based on Kapurea’s petition.
The land-owning agency felled over 600 trees, including trees in forest land, based on the Delhi government’s notification to fell 422 trees on 14 February this year, as per affidavits submitted by DDA V-C.
In December last year, the DDA sought permission from the Delhi government’s forest and wildlife department for felling of 422 trees falling in non-forest land at the project site.
As per the documents in DDA V-C affidavit, after following due procedure and obtaining permission from Delhi LG (competent authority), a notification was issued under section 29 of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act on 14 February. The next day, the wildlife department asked DDA to deposit a security deposit of Rs 2.4 crore for felling/transplant of 422 trees.
But the DDA informed the court that it “misread” the notification as final permission. “In written reply/letter dated 08.05.2024, DDA official submitted that notification date 14/02/24 was misread as final permission that issued was against online application no. 16745. Tree Officer observed their reply as vague & generalistic and issued direction to issue another notice to get detailed reply from the DDA,” as per a report by Delhi government’s forest and wildlife department on 1 July, which was part of the DDA V-C affidavit.
Delhi LG’s ‘role’ and alleged cover up by DDA
The apex court has been seeking response from DDA regarding what happened during Delhi LG VK Saxena’s visit to the site on 3 February, 2024, and if the LG directed the clearing of trees.
“The first day, we should have been told — yes, LG came and said, expedite the work. Cover-up went on for three days, four days… Why was it not brought to our notice immediately? You should have accepted it — yes, L-G visited, he was worried the project was getting delayed and the road has to be constructed for the benefit of some colony also, and he said do it immediately,” said Justice Oka presiding over a two-judge bench including Justice Augustine George Masih, The Indian Express reported Saturday.
This comes days after a DDA engineer submitted a deposition in the Supreme Court stating that an email sent from his account allegedly implicating the L-G for felling of trees in the Southern Ridge was “manipulated… and changed with malicious intent”, reported The Indian Express.
Following an SC order on 16 May, the DDA V-C had constituted an inquiry committee to identify the person(s) who asked the contractor to fell the trees without waiting for SC’s permission.
In an affidavit filed on 9 July, the DDA V-C wrote to Delhi LG’s Principal Secretary, Ashish Kundra, pointing out that it was found in the inquiry that an email by the engineer was sent to the contractor to clear the trees.
“In the said inquiry, it has been revealed that Shri Manoj Yadav, Executive Engineer SMO 5, DOA had given directions to the Contractor for felling of the said trees via an email dated 14-02-2024 6:04 pm (Annexure 3). In the said email, he has mentioned that the HLG had visited CAPFIMS road on 03-02-2024 and directed to clear the trees coming in the ROW,” wrote DDA V-C Panda, seeking information about what transpired during the visit.
On Friday, the apex court remarked that there was a “cover up” by DDA regarding what happened during Delhi LG’s visit.