The Delhi government has prepared a Tree Transplantation Policy 2020, under which for any project, 80% of trees affected by the developmental activities at a particular site has to be transplanted. “This is the first time the Delhi government is coming up with a transplantation policy and the Cabinet is expected to give nod to the draft policy next week,” a government source told The Hindu .
There is no mandatory condition for the number of trees to be transplanted as per current rules in Delhi. The existing policy of planting 10 saplings for each tree being felled will continue, and also 10 saplings will have to be planted for each tree being transplanted too, according to the new policy.
Also, the government will come out with a list of empanelled technical agencies, which will be doing the transplantation.
Exception to the 80% transplantation rule will be given in projects where less than 10 trees are felled and also in “exceptional cases” where a government committee gives permission.
A dedicated ‘Tree Transplantation Cell’ will also be established. For projects in which 100 or more trees have been transplanted, a social audit at the end of one year of completion of transplantation will be done to establish survival rate.
Experts not happy
But experts are critical about the policy. “What we need is a tree preservation policy and not tree transplantation policy. Tree transplantation is expensive and survival rate is problematic,” said Kanchi Kohli, senior researcher at the Centre for Policy Research.
Ms. Kohli said that government and projects seeing trees as a hindrance is the problem. “Projects should be redesigned keeping the tree colony in mind and to protect them. It is possible and there are many architects who would agree to it,” she said.
Under the new policy, a ‘Site Tree Report’ has to be prepared at the time of project feasibility assessment, which will have preliminary assessment of the number of trees to be transplanted.
The technical agency will help the applicant in preparing a ‘Tree Preservation Plan’ with priority for on-site preservation. If retaining the trees at their original locations is not feasible, then priority will be to transplant the affected trees within the project site. If this is also not possible, then transplanting to another location will be considered.
The plan will be then submitted to the Tree Officer concerned, along with the application for tree felling.
Once they get permission, the technical agency will carry the transplantation, including taking care of the transplanted trees to ensure that the trees have successfully adapted to their new habitat. All the transplanted trees have to be geo-tagged.
At the end of one year, the technical agency will submit a survival assessment report on tree survival rate. The benchmark tree survival rate will be 80%.
