Delhi govt to empanel tree transplantation agencies with advanced machinery

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) to empanel tree transplantation agencies with advanced machinery in a bid to improve the survival rate of transplanted trees in the Capital, officials said

New Delhi: The Delhi government on Thursday floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) to empanel tree transplantation agencies with advanced machinery in a bid to improve the survival rate of transplanted trees in the Capital, officials said.

According to officials, the agencies must have machinery to uproot trees intact with their root balls and must also have a certified arborist (Sunil Ghosh / HT)

According to officials, the agencies must have machinery to uproot trees intact with their root balls and must also have a certified arborist, among other facilities. “The goal is to use the best technology already employed abroad,” an official said.

According to the EoI, seen by HT, the interested agency must own at least one commercially manufactured tree transplantation machine capable of handling trees with a girth of 150cm or above.

“The applicant must employ qualified personnel, including a minimum of one certified arborist or arboriculturist and a minimum of one trained tree transplantation machine operator. Additional experts such as horticulturists, soil scientists, environmental specialists, or landscape professionals will be considered favourably,” it states. It adds that the forest department can impose a penalty of up to ₹57,000 per tree for violating the tree transplantation policy guidelines.

Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa told HT on Thursday that the survival rate of trees transplanted in previous years has been fairly low, with empanelled agencies often using backhoe loaders, instead of specialised machines. “We will only empanel agencies now that have proper, advanced machines. Existing empanelled agencies will also have to get new technology, or they will not be able to transplant moving forward,” he told HT.

According to the forest department’s website, Delhi currently has six agencies empanelled for tree transplantation.

HT reported on April 14 how the forest department approached the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun to conduct a detailed study on the tree transplantation process in the capital – assessing the reasons behind the low survival rate of transplanted trees and how to improve it.

As part of this study, which may take about a year to complete, FRI has also been asked to assess which species are more suitable for tree transplantation and which species were least ideal for the process.

Government officials said that based on the findings, suitable changes to the Tree Transplantation Policy 2020 will be made accordingly.

In an affidavit to the Delhi High Court in May 2022, the forest department stated that out of the 16,461 trees transplanted between 2019 until 2021, only 5,487 (33.33%) of the total trees had survived the transplantation process. During the same period, a total of 22 construction projects undertook tree transplantation, with 19 projects completing 100% of its tree transplantation process. However, only one project out of these was able to meet the survival rate threshold of 80% as per the transplantation policy.

More recently, a reply by the Centre in the Lok Sabha last week stated that nearly 43% of the trees transplanted for the central government’s ₹20,000-crore Central Vista redevelopment project had perished and failed the transplantation process. The government had said a total of 3,609 trees were transplanted for the project, of which 1,545 did not survive after transplantation.