Govt to discuss high court’s tree pruning guidelines: Rai

The Delhi government is planning a meeting next week to discuss the Delhi high court?s directions to set aside guidelines on pruning trees in the city. The high court made it mandatory to get permission from a tree officer for any kind of pruning, causing difficulties for residents. The government may introduce new rules if necessary. The issue of concretised trees, a leading cause of trees toppling in monsoon season, will also be discussed at the meeting.

Environment minister Gopal Rai on Wednesday said the Delhi government is planning a meeting next week to discuss the Delhi high court’s directions to set aside guidelines to prune trees in the Capital.

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said the government will discuss the tree pruning guidelines issued by the Delhi high court. (HT Photo)

Delhi’s tree pruning guidelines allowed civic agencies and urban local bodies to carry out trim branches with a width of up to 15.7 centimetres without requiring an approval from a tree officer or the forest department. Residents simply approached the MCD or their local discom with a complaint, which would subsequently carry out pruning on its own.

However, the high court on May 29 set aside these guidelines and made it mandatory to get permission from a tree officer for any kind of pruning.

On Wednesday, Rai said the government may come out with new rules, if required.

“We have been receiving complaints from RWAs in relation to tree pruning and the challenges being faced by them. I have issued directions to the forest department to conduct a conference next week with experts and RWAs to find a solution to this problem. At the same time, we don’t want tree conservation to be impacted and we want a scientific approach to this,” he said.

Rai said the issue of concretised trees will also be discussed in the same meeting – a leading cause of trees toppling each monsoon.

HT had on July 21 reported how the change in process has made it difficult to get trees pruned in the Capital, as Delhi only has four tree officers — one for each forest division in Delhi. One such instance was the GK-1 S block RWA, which after two months of trying to get trees pruned safely, felt the brunt of a thunderstorm on July 15, leading to multiple trees and branches falling on top of vehicles and toppling at least three electricity poles, which not only blocked colony roads, but also led to a power cut in the area.

Experts, however, argue that a scientific approach to pruning is required.

“At the ground-level, the staff not trained to handle or pruned trees scientifically and this has led to butchering of trees in the past. We also need to address concretisation around trees, which is a problem that is not being addressed by any agency.” said Bhavreen Kandhari, an environmental activist.