New Delhi: The fact finding committee of the Delhi government on Tuesday visited Satbari in southern Ridge area, where 1,100 trees were allegedly felled without proper permission.
Urban development minister and member of the committee Saurabh Bharadwaj, who visited the site, alleged that the DDA has cut the trees without the Supreme Court's permission.
The three-member committee, comprising ministers Bharadwaj, Atishi and Imran Hussain, was formed to investigate the alleged tree felling in the Ridge area by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) without proper permission for building a road.
Bharadwaj said the apex court has banned all the work in this area. "Despite this, work is going on with bulldozers here," he said. The minister further alleged that "the DDA is uprooting the felled trees completely and putting a layer of soil there so that the correct count of these trees cannot be done".
"Hundreds of trees were cut down to widen the Gaushala Road in the Satbari forest area, even though the land from the farmhouses could have been acquired. This benefited the large farmhouse owners," Bharadwaj said in a post in Hindi on X.
आज दिल्ली सरकार द्वारा गठित Fact-Finding Committee ने सतबड़ी वन्य क्षेत्र छतरपुर का दौरा किया, जहां LG के आदेश पर 1,100 पेड़ काटे गए थे।
— Saurabh Bharadwaj (@Saurabh_MLAgk) July 9, 2024
“गाँव वालों ने मुझे बताया कि जिस सड़क पर हम खड़े हैं, वह जंगल के बीच में नई बनी है। यहाँ बहुत सारे पेड़ थे जो काट दिए गए। सुप्रीम कोर्ट द्वारा… pic.twitter.com/5zUOmm6nhs
"By looking at this road, it is clear that the lush forest was cut down to benefit the large farmhouse owners. There is a big possibility of corruption in it, it should be probed," he added in the post.
Bharadwaj claimed that "it is under the knowledge of the Supreme Court that the Delhi LG during his visit here on February 3, 2024, gave verbal order to cut the trees". Water minister Atishi said it is matter of grave concern that so many trees have been felled in the Ridge area.
"Delhi has faced a severe heatwave this year. Delhi has a problem of pollution, in such a situation, if trees are cut illegally in the sensitive ecosystem zone of the city and it is done under the supervision of the highest authority then who will take care of the interests of the people," she said.
Strict action should be taken against those who were involved in "illegal" felling of the trees, the minister said. She alleged that the "officers were hiding facts from the them and avoiding to attend the meeting". The committee will submit its report before the Supreme Court that is seized of the matter, Atishi added.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), which is in power in the national capital, also posted on X regarding the matter. "Despite the Supreme Court's ban, the DDA is still working here. It is making the roots and trunks (of the cut trees) disappear so that the correct count of the felled trees cannot be done," a post in Hindi on the party's official page on X said.
It added that the road could have been widened by acquiring the land of farmhouses, which are build on the other side of the road, but "the DDA illegally cut down the forest instead". The AAP leaders have alleged that 1,100 trees in the southern Ridge area were cut by the DDA on the lieutenant governor's verbal instructions.
Recently, the BJP, showing some purported documents related to the matter, claimed that the trees were felled after approvals from Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and environment minister Gopal Rai.
