Trees are not dispensable

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When things reach an edge Delhi’s civil society comes together to rally and protest for public causes. In 2011 the rampant corruption in the Manmohan Singh government threw up a Gandhian Anna Hazare who was agitating in Maharashtra for years against local corruption and then came to Delhi with support of various civil society leaders. He evoked tremendous response in his protracted agitation, including a prolonged fast, supported by unorganized members of public, forced the government to assure that his main demand of creation of a Lok Pal would soon be met by suitable legislative action. That, however, turned out to be ruse as a Lok Pal is yet to be appointed. The movement, however, gave birth to Aam Aadmi Party which has been ruling in Delhi with a rather scratchy performance for around four years.

Again in December 2012 when “Nirbhaya”, a young girl, a physiotherapy intern, was brutally raped and physically abused by the staff of a commuter bus which eventually led to her untimely death the civil society of Delhi again rallied round for greater safety of women on Delhi streets. It forced the government to enact a series of stringent anti-rape laws. The laws may not have reduced the incidence of rapes but the civil society’s rallies and demands in unison sensitized the administrations of the entire country against such horrendous crimes against women. On account of that unrelenting movement the accused in the Nirbhaya case have since been awarded death penalty.

Now once more, as the wellbeing of people of Delhi has been threatened by the proposal to cut down as many as 14000 trees for the so-called re-development of quite a few South Delhi residential colonies, including Sarojini Nagar, Netaji Nagar and Nauroji Nagar, they came out in strength to strongly protest against the decision of the government. The protests were so strong, especially because of the rising pollution and temperature in Delhi that the government had to back off. The court and the National Green Tribunal, where the matter had been taken, imposed a stay on further cutting down of trees. The Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs ordered that no tree would be cut and asked for redesign of re-development plans of the long-established colonies. Such is the power of the civil society when it chooses to rise in protest. One wonders what kind of planners have been engaged who seem to have been oblivious of the current extremely high level of pollution in the city and have suggested felling of as many as 14000 trees existing in these colonies for decades. This after the Delhi Forest Department indiscriminately allowed massive tree-felling in Delhi.

Something obviously is wrong with the Forest Department of Delhi Administration. Reports indicate that in the last seven years it has given permission to fell more than 44000 trees and now it had again permitted felling of as many as 14000 trees for the so-called redevelopment of South Delhi colonies. The officers of the Department seem to have lost all sense of proportion. Whenever proposals are sent to it for felling of large number of trees they impose only token cuts allowing large-scale felling. They have displayed utter apathy towards the health and wellbeing of the citizens of Delhi and their environment. One imagines their mechanical way of functioning, unless checked, will convert Delhi into a desert in not too distant future. Besides, the City is already highly polluted with PM-10 and PM 2.5 levels way beyond normal. Such massive tree-felling operations will greatly enhance atmospheric pollution. The City’s citizens are already choking and with so many trees gone they would be exposed to untold health hazards.

It seems, none ever pays attention to the welfare of the citizens – neither the government environmental conservation agencies nor the bureaucrats or city planners. They are only interested in building concrete jungles replacing all greenery. Their argument that compensatory plantation will be carried out has proven to be only a ruse. Besides, saplings cannot be substituted for full grown decades-old tall trees with widely spread–out canopies. It is only the canopies which intercept the particulates and also provide shade to the commuters walking on the hot asphalt in summers.

In accordance with rules, for every tree cut down ten need to be planted. Often so much of land is not available in and around the site of the cut-down tree. The compensatory plantation is thus carried out wherever land is available which is generally in the outskirts of the city. This does not help in any way the localities where mass-scale tree-felling is undertaken. Besides, authorities often do not plant native trees; they go in for decorative or ornamental trees which are of little help in conserving the environment. Compensatory plantation is actually perpetration of a fraud on the people. A rate of survival of 30% of planted trees is considered good but generally only 10% survive. Pradip Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, a strenuous study conducted by him, says “the concept of compensatory plantation is fundamentally flawed. The land has poor quality soil – the reason why it is vacant in the first place. And the agencies are interested only in meeting targets.” The forest departments’ business is to protect forests and trees. They do not pursue compensatory plantation with due diligence and yet they indulge in large-scale felling of trees.

Translocation of trees, a practice that is being bandied about, is also not very successful. The success ratio has been poor in trans-locating fully grown trees with their entire ecosystems of parasites, insects and animals mainly because of lack of adaptability in many accompanying organisms and unfamiliar as well as strange, sometimes even hostile, ecosystems of the new surroundings. Besides, removal of a fully grown tree from its moorings inflicts a severe shock on it which alone sometimes is cause of its end.

Though already a few thousand trees have been felled in some of the ear-marked colonies yet Delhi’s environment has been saved for the time being. Now that the Minister concerned himself has taken matters in his own hands the redevelopment projects are likely to get drastically modified. Credit has to be given to the civil society of the city which did not take the decisions of the authorities lying down. They rose up in protest and forced the authorities to re-examine their decision.

Numerous other cities are not as lucky as their civil societies seldom rise against local decisions that hurt their interests. But in places like Bhopal severe protests by civil society forced the government to trash the builder-oriented City Development Plan 2005. Likewise, in 2015 widespread protests forced the government to change the site of the smart city as thousands o trees were to be felled destroying green ambiance of the city. Nonetheless, urban areas need to draw a lesson from Delhi and ensure that their health and wellbeing is given priority over the dreaded word “vikas” and hence whenever there is a confrontation between the two they have to stand for their own interests. There can be no trade-off between development and environment.

*Photo from internet of cluster of tree in highly urbanised Chicago

Bhopal Notes :: 59 :: Indian style development is enemy of greenery

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The local Smart City establishment seems to be seriously at work. Passing by, I happened to see that in south TT Nagar around half a century old low-rise residential government houses meant for the lower-level employees of the state government are being demolished. It is a very unpleasant sight.

One can quite imagine, with the demolitions numerous worlds have been destroyed and many of the inmates who spent a lifetime in these buildings were forcibly removed. They surely would have gone kicking screaming. After all, for years and perhaps decades these constituted their worlds. Here they married, had children, brought them up and launched them in the wide world to fend for themselves. They had developed their roots here that had gone deep during the long decades they spent here and uprooting them from their moorings would seem to be so cruel. But then, as Tennyson had said “Old order changeth, yielding place to new”, howsoever painful, a change has to come about replacing the old “order. And this change is mostly for that much bandied word “vikas” (development), which surely would not be of those who were removed from their hearths and homes.

It is a depressing sight. But in the depressing environment something stands out and captures your attention. Numerous trees – full grown and healthy – are standing next to the demolished homes. They seem to be there forlorn and in splendid isolation as they are bereft of their human company. These were not the trees that were planted by the civic bodies; these were planted, nurtured and cared for by the inmates who peopled the neighbouring now-demolished houses. Both of them had developed a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefit and mutual dependence. That relationship has suddenly snapped.

Perhaps, these have been left standing because of the backlash of the earlier effort of the administration to create a smart city at Shivaji Nagar after destroying hundreds and thousands of trees. That iconic image of Dr. Balwapuri of Red Cross Hospital in close embrace with fat trunk of a tree promptly comes to mind. The proposal to build the smart city there was given up mainly due to protests of the stakeholders of the entire neighbourhood. Only time will tell whether the trees of the South TT Nagar are going to be as lucky as those that escaped the axe in Shivaji Nagar. One has a hunch that they are going to meet the same fate as meted out to those which were felled to bring up Gammon India’s “Drishti” complex, charitably called “Central Business District”. Perhaps, the axes and bulldozers are waiting for the necessary clearance.

I say this because the city administrators are very ”axe-happy”. Despite the repeated reports of the city being rapidly divested of its greenery a big swathe of land along the Lower Lake has been cleared by felling a pretty dense assemblage of trees. This seems to have been done under the project of conversion of Minto Hall complex into a starred hotel and convention centre. The trees have been sacrificed for widening the road that runs along the Lower Lake and, perhaps, will provide access to the proposed convention centre. With two accesses for the Minto Hall complex already available the need for widening the road seems incomprehensible.

In any project the trees are the first casualties. Even the area next to the approach of the bungalow of the Mayor near Karbala quite a few trees have been felled for reasons that are still unknown. The place was green and cool with a good, dense undergrowth. But no, the axes wee wielded and the place looks so bare now. One wonders at the casualness of the officialdom and its penchant for taking such decisions that are harmful for the people.

Again, a proposal that was presumed to be dead is being revived. The proposal for construction of a guest house and few residences for MLAs was killed earlier about three years ago as it involved in felling of thousands of trees in or near the MLAs rest house complex. The protests put a stop to the project but before that a thousand trees had already been felled. The same proposal is being revived and the Speaker is reportedly pursuing the matter. On the last occasion some people had pointed out that there was hardly any need for new residences for MLAs as on bifurcation of the state a substantial number of them have now gone away to Chhattisgarh. But none is probably prepared to pay heed to any counter comment for the reason MLAs are the government and in the pre-election year the administration will also want to keep them happy.

Hence, with one project or another trees in the town are being sacrificed. None seems to think that trees are supportive of life and wellbeing, more so in these days of heavy air pollution and scarcity of water. Surprisingly the civic bodies that are entrusted with the duty of creating clean and healthy spaces for people are the worst defaulters. They seem to have sworn to divest the city of all its greenery leaving the citizens to contend with the rise in air pollution that fosters diseases and death as also unconscionable rise in temperature making the once-salubrious city unlivable.

They apparently are ignorant of the various researches that have shown how valuable a city’s greenery is. A new research, results of which have been published in the journal Ecological Modelling, indicates how much money trees can save for a city. After studying 10 megacities around the world and taking into account air pollution, storm water, building energy, and carbon emissions, the researchers found that trees have an economic benefit of about $505 million every year. Researchers from State University of New York College of Environmental Science & Forestry and Parthenope University of Naples found that trees are worth $1.2 million per square kilometer or $35 per capita.

But in India none probably cares – more so in the states and their municipalities. In the case of Bhopal, the local civic body and also the local government have been unmindful of the impacts of their actions to add more cement and concrete structures in the city. They have scarcely reacted on the repeated reports of tumbling greenery of the city. Besides, they have been singularly unsuccessful in taking care of what was received by them as inheritance in the shape of natural and man-made assets from their feudal predecessors. In fact, they have tried to destroy most of it, chasing a mirage, as it were, of development and progress.

*photo from internet