Hindustan Times: New Delhi: Sunday, 23 July 2017.
A
green activist has launched a petition on change.org to stop the felling of
1713 trees, which are set to make way for the construction of an integrated
exhibition-cum-convention centre at Pragati Maidan.
The
petition had garnered 193 (out of required 200) signatures till Saturday.
Hindustan
Times had on July 6 highlighted that more than 1,700 trees may be felled to
make way for a integrated exhibition-cum-convention centre at Pragati Maidan,
according to the reply of an RTI query. Green activists say that the trees to
be felled are mostly more than 60 years old.
Tree
activist Radhika Bhagat, who has started the petition on change.org, says it is
a plea to the Union ministry of environment, forests and climate change, Delhi
chief minister, environment and forest minister, Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
the state level Environment Impact Assessment Authority and India Trade
Promotion Organization (ITPO) to stall the felling of trees.
“This
petition is helping bring social recognition on the Pragati Maidan tree cutting
issue. A significant number of people have signed it and we want to show the
authorities that this matter is crucial to the public and needs attention,”
Bhagat told Hindustan Times.
Environment
activists have already raised concerns and said that more than 15,000 trees
have already been felled in the Capital over the last three years. While more
than 6,000 were cut in 2014-15, around 4,600 and 4,700 trees were felled in
2015-16 and 2016-17.
The
petition on change.org says that tree felling will be done right in the heart
of the city with several schools, hospitals and residential areas in the
vicinity.
"These
areas, along with the rest of Delhi-NCR, will suffer from the resulting
pollution, that will only worsen. Over the last 3 years , Delhi has already
lost 15,000 trees to development and we cannot afford to lose any more,” it
says.
“Do
you feel embarrassed and worried to be living in the most polluted city on our
planet?... Are you concerned about your and your dear ones health due to
Delhi’s consistently hazardous levels of air quality ?... Here is your chance
to take action about this situation by protecting the lungs of Delhi, the
trees,” the petition reads.
Forest
officials have already issued permission for cutting down the 1700 trees around
Pragati Maidan as per Delhi Preservation of Trees Act and the required fees has
also been deposited.
Another
Delhi-based environmentalist has started a separate crowdfunding campaign to
raise funds for printing costs, lawyer’s and court fee to stall the “losing
1,713 healthy big trees in the heart of the city that will lead to severe
health damage to lakhs of residents”.
Advocate
Aditya Prasad, who had filed the RTI that revealed the plan to fell these
trees, has earlier said, “They have not got any Environment Impact Assessment
clearance but still got permission to cut these trees from the forest
department. There is a tree authority, which is supposed to clear these kind of
projects, under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. On paper it is there
but doesn’t meet or act.”
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