Rail agency fined ₹5.93 crore for damaging 990 trees in Delhi's Dwarka

A senior forest official said following the excavation, a hearing was held on June 8 and RLDA agreed to comply with any directions issued by the tree officer.

The Rail Land Development Authority (RLDA), the agency redeveloping the Bijwasan rail terminal in Dwarka’s Sector 21, has been fined ₹5.93 crore by the Delhi forest and wildlife department for damaging or illegally felling as many as 990 trees in a 4.09 hectare area of the project site, forest officials aware of the matter have said.

The rail body said it will comply with the findings of the forest department and will submit the fine amount soon. (Sourced)

The rail body said it will comply with the findings of the forest department and will submit the fine amount soon.

The forest and wildlife department had last month, in a rare move, carried out an excavation at the site to find “proof” of tree felling -- in the form of leftover roots or dead trees -- after RLDA repeatedly denied having harmed any tree. The six-day excavation, during which time all other work was stopped, found that nearly 150 trees were buried at the project site. Around 100 of those trees were re-erected at the same spot, while nearly 54 others were deemed to be still “alive”, with a slim chance of taking root again, forest officials said.

A senior forest official said following the excavation, a hearing was held on June 8 and RLDA agreed to comply with any directions issued by the tree officer. The forest officials said while the excavation exercise covered only an area of 0.62 hectare, a standard extrapolation method was used to calculate the number of trees that were felled in the entire 4.09 hectare area of the project site.

“While the extrapolation was done based on a rough calculation, it is unlikely the final figure we arrived at will be any different from the actual number of trees that were felled or damaged. Based on this, a final order was issued to RLDA on June 14, imposing a fine of ₹5.93 crore on it. The agency has time until June 30 to submit the amount,” a forest official said, asking not to be named.

The forest department began investigation into the project in January 2022, after local green activists Naveen Solanki and Himanshu Saini filed a complaint with the Delhi Police and the forest department, alleging that hundreds of trees had been cut at the Bijwasan site without due permission from the forest department.

Subsequently, an inspection was carried out by the forest department and it found that around 131 trees were felled or damaged in the area; however, RLDA denied having anything to do with that. After four hearings were held, the forest department finally issued an order on May 24, permitting two forest guards to undertake an excavation at the site from May 26 onwards, to find evidence of tree felling, after time lapse satellite images showed the trees and green cover gradually decreasing in the area.

The two complainants, meanwhile, have raised further apprehensions that the ready mixed concrete (RMC) plant at the project site is possibly harming trees as concrete is being dumped near the roots.

“It was directed by the tree officer that the trees shall be deconcretised and the RMC machine shifted to another place in order to avoid further harm to the trees and the permission for felling trees, under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994, shall be submitted within seven days from the issuance of this order from the west division.” the June 14 order said .

A forest official said the RLDA had said that it would apply for permission to fell more trees, but the department is yet to receive any such request. “The agency had told us this in May and to date, it has not applied for any permission to fell more trees,” the official said.

An RLDA official, on condition of anonymity, said notwithstanding the findings, RLDA was a responsible government entity and will abide by the decisions of the tree officer. “We will respect and abide by the directions of the tree officer in the matter.”