Over 1,000 trees have been removed to make way for the various Central Vista redevelopment projects so far, the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry said in the Rajya Sabha on Monday, even while maintaining that “no tree” had been “felled/cut”.
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In response to Communist Party of India (Marxist) MP John Brittas’ question whether several hundred trees were uprooted for the Central Vista project, H&UA Minister of State Kaushal Kishore said in written reply: “No tree has been felled/cut in various projects under the Central Vista development/redevelopment master plan. Till date, 1,051 trees have been transplanted at other locations.”
So far, construction of the new Parliament building, redevelopment of Rajpath, construction of three buildings of the Common Central Secretariat and the Vice-President’s Enclave are underway, with the new Executive Enclave, which includes the Prime Minister’s Office, in the final stage of the bidding process.
In his reply, the Minister said due care had been taken to keep the number of trees affected to the minimum and compensatory plantation of 10 times of the number of trees transplanted was also being done within Delhi.
The reply comes as the Central Public Works Department, the implementing agency for the Central Vista projects, is in the process for environment clearance for the Executive Enclave project. The State-level expert appraisal committee of Delhi had earlier raised concerns about the number of trees to be cut for the project, following which the CPWD revised its proposal from 630 trees to be removed to 487, according to the minutes of the meeting on March 26. The committee had in its meeting on January 31 found the number of trees proposed to be removed to be “excessively high”.