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Every year monsoons fill our aquifers, keep our cows well fed, help in producing more hydro-electricity, stop our skins from drying out, make surroundings lush green full of birds in full display and transforms Delhi into a misty paradise with romantic walks.
More than all that it’s time when maximum tree plantation drives take place. I wonder that happened to the trees I planted 20-25 years back. Are they there or have they been chopped?
According to Government claims Delhi has 20 lakh trees and its tree covered area is 300 sq. km -the largest among all metropolitan cities in the country.
Here are two statements- Delhi has a reserve and a protected forest. Delhi is the pollution capital of the world. One statement must be wrong. We know pollution is a reality with every breath we take. Let’s delve into our forests.
Historically Delhi had trees with large canopies matching its architectural grandeur. At present a tree trunk five centimetres in diameter, and a height of one meter is also counted as a tree. Any land one hectare in size and 10% tree density is called a forest. By these parameters its convenient to make the above claims.
There is so much more we the people must know. A citizen is charged a fine of Rs. 60000 for cutting a tree but the law makers, the policy makers get thousands of trees chopped with only allegations and counter allegations as to who gave the written or oral order. Layered plantation, Miyawaki forest development, aquatic forest development are just terms to be thrown around. Awareness campaigns related to tree plantation are advertisements about school, college educational institutions collaborating with greening agencies.
Let’s now take a walk in our reserve and protected forests. Most noticeable is that even the kikkar trees are not Desi Kikkar but invasive Mexican kikkar eating up the native Palash. The ever green trees like Maulshri and Kadams adopted over millions of years to cope with stresses like harsh winters and high summer temperatures have been replaced by exotic trees like Oleander, weeping fig etc. The forests have more concrete than ever before. Remainder forests are getting converted to parks.
Delhi’s Sufi saints, its erstwhile rulers, its artists and its people in general planted majestic trees. Qutab Minar, Tughlaqabad, Nizzamuddin dargah, purana quila, Shahjahanabad, red fort, Jama masjid, Seesh Ganj gurudwara, Firoz shah Kotla fort, Hauz Khas fort, Lodi garden, deer park, Rosh Nara bagh, Humayun’s tomb, Agrasen’s baoli, Jantar Mantar and other places had abundance of Khirneys, Pepuls, Banyans, Kadambas, Neems, Bakuls, Palash, Karanjs , Arjuns, Shahtoots, Mangos, Jamuns, Semuls, Amaltas, Arjuns Ashokas and Pilkhans.
Whom did those trees belong to? Ofcourse they belonged to we the people but we the people never knew it. In the meantime, due to acute corruption in all trees related issues, majestic trees disappeared or dwindled in number. species substitution and forests hacking reduced Delhi to a virtual green city.
Now that we have realised that the trees do not belong to any government thus government agencies must be punished under tree protection laws for lapses. We the people must collectively DE chock and DE nail the trees, nurse injured trees , remove all malba around trees, monitor and prevent lighting a fire under any tree, Give the leaves of each tree enough sun. Look into the spatial distribution of the trees according to their canopy size. Prune as little as possible the dead branches, suckers. downward-growing branches, rubbing or crisscrossing branches, shaded interior branches, competing branches.
If you know any forest that has been converted into a park please work towards giving it a forest character. when a forest is converted to a park its temperature goes up by 2 – 4° C, Noise level goes up by 40 – 50 dbs,Oxygen generation goes down from 3 tons /1 sq.km to 1 ton per sq.km.,Absorption of CO2 reduces from 4.2 tons / sq.km to 1.7 tons per sq.km. and its dust absorption capacity goes down from 11 grams / 10 meter square in 24 hours to 6 grams.
Remember that trees outside the forest amount to 283 sq km/19 % of delhi become a major contributer to green delhi then its time to question who is greening delhi and who is desrtifying it.? Remember Rs 223 crores from the forest department’s sundry account got transferred to a fictitious savings account, we need to become vigilant.
Be vigilant and safeguard the forests. File litigations as and when trees get killed in the process or after math of transplanting them, any short sightedness of government agencies incharge of helping you to look after your trees because the trees belong to you.
These pieces are being published as they have been received – they have not been edited/fact-checked by ThePrint