12,000+ trees cut in Delhi in under 1K days'

The biggest failure has been in understanding that these Acts are not for cutting trees but preserving them. SUPREME COURT

- Abraham Thomas

NEW DELHI: Officers entrusted with protecting Delhi's trees granted permission to chop down over 12,000 trees in around 30 months — an average pace of more than 12 trees a day — data presented in the Supreme Court showed. Noting this, the apex court remarked that the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994 (DPTA), meant to safeguard trees, was being used to permit their felling instead.

The court was hearing an application filed by Bhavreen Kandhari, who highlighted that over 60,000 trees were chopped in Delhi between 2015 and 2021. A bench led by Justice Abhay S Oka suggested conducting a tree census and proposed the formation of an expert body to oversee permissions granted by so-called "tree officers" — appointed under DPTA — particularly for cutting more than 25-50 trees.