Southern civic body calls its action ‘unintentional’, promises compensatory afforestation
Southern civic body calls its action ‘unintentional’, promises compensatory afforestation
The uproar over the uprooting of a tree from a footpath adjoining the boundary wall of a house in New Friends Colony during the South Delhi Municipal Corporation’s anti-encroachment drive on Tuesday has raised a pertinent question – can a tree be treated as encroachment? ?
The civic body, which dismissed the tree as “encroachment” on the day of the drive, issued a statement on Wednesday terming its action as “inadvertent”, while assuring the forest department that it would undertake compensatory afforestation as per the guidelines. will work.
The statement came a day after local residents raised concerns saying that the civic body was “targeting plants and trees” instead of addressing the “real issues”.
Civic officials present during the drive had uprooted the tree saying that the tree was obstructing the “right of way on the sidewalk”. He had dismissed the question whether he had prior permission to uproot the tree.
A senior SDMC official – who was not present at the spot – had similar views on the incident on Tuesday. However, when contacted on Wednesday, he said the trees were not actually considered to be “encroached upon”.
‘Permission needed’
“We cannot remove a tree without the permission of the forest department as they have to be protected. Encroachments are things that are man-made; Even if the tree is creating a hindrance or hindering development work, we still need to take permission from the forest department,” said a senior SDMC official.
He said that the southern civic body took cognizance of the incident and informed the forest department. The official also assured “compensatory afforestation of 10 trees”.
AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan, in a letter to the SHO of New Friends Colony, had sought registration of a complaint against the SDMC officials for “illegally uprooting a tree”, while saying it was a “Forest Act and Delhi”. was a violation. Tree Protection Act (1994)”.
However, a senior SDMC official said the civic body was unaware of Mr Khan’s letter and had taken action on its own to rectify its “inadvertent” action.
“The tree was completely inclined towards the boundary wall which was encroaching on the footpath. While removing the encroachment, the tree also got uprooted unintentionally. It was not right, and we are giving compensation,” the official said.
When contacted, Mr. Khan said, “They [SDMC] It is only because of my complaint that I have accepted it as its news was published by almost all the media houses. An FIR should be registered against him as the same action would have been taken against a common man for such an offence.”