The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has imposed an environmental compensation of ₹95.05 lakh on Delhi government’s transport department for felling 495 trees to construct bus depots in Burari in 2019, without compensatory afforestation. The tribunal said the activity was “illegal” as the permission granted by the forest department included transplantation of 168 trees and compensatory plantation of 4,950 saplings, which was not adhered.
A bench comprising justice Sudhir Agarwal and expert member Dr Afroz Ahmed said the environmental compensation has been calculated using guidelines devised by the Uttarakhand Pollution Control Board (UKPCB), asking all states, including Delhi, to use the same when illegal tree felling takes place.
NGT has been hearing the plea since February 2023, when a resident, Pramod Tyagi, had alleged that over 3,000 trees had been felled illegally in Burari by the transport department. The state forest department then informed that they had given the permission to cut 495 trees, out of which 168 were to be transplanted and 4,950 saplings were to be planted in compensation.
On-ground inspections by the forest department revealed that only 89 trees were actually transplanted, with only 27 surviving and no compensatory plantation was done. Thus, a notice was issued to the transport department the same year to plant a total of 5,655 saplings.
The NGT, in its order dated March 21, said the amount of interim environmental compensation due to the illegal cutting of 468 trees comes to ₹46.80 lakh.
“468 trees (excluding the 27 trees which were transplanted and survived) were cut, which caused damage to the environment. So we compute interim compensation at the rate of ₹10,000 per tree in the absence of details like age and nature of the trees,” the bench said.
Further, it said it has calculated the damage caused to the environment for compensatory plantation not occurring.
“Besides, for causing damage to the environment by not carrying out compensatory plantation of 5,655 trees at the rate of ₹1,000 per such tree, the interim compensation must be computed, which comes to ₹48.25 lakh,” the bench added.
The same methodology will be used for future cases of illegal tree felling, the judge said.
