Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar informed the Supreme Court that LG VK Saxena was unaware of the need for its permission to fell trees in the Southern Ridge during his February 2 visit. This was revealed in a new affidavit amid a contempt petition against the DDA for illegal tree felling in Satbari.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!
NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Secretary Naresh Kumar has recently informed the Supreme Court that Lieutenant Governor (LG) VK Saxena was not aware of the requirement to obtain the Supreme Court’s permission for the felling of trees in the southern Ridge area during his site visit on February 2. This disclosure was made in a fresh affidavit submitted to the court amidst a contempt petition against the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), chaired by Saxena, regarding the illegal felling of trees in Satbari.
Background of the Contempt Petition
The contempt plea was filed by a Delhi resident, Bindu Kapurea, alleging that approximately 1,100 trees were felled in the Ridge area without the necessary permission from the Supreme Court, as mandated under the MC Mehta case of May 1996, which protects the Ridge from encroachments. The large-scale tree removal was conducted to facilitate the construction of a 10km road from Chattarpur to SAARC University and other facilities in the Maidan Garhi and Satbari areas.
Details from the Affidavit
In compliance with the Supreme Court’s order dated July 12, Kumar detailed the events of the LG’s visit to the site. The court had previously expressed that it was “not interested” in examining the acceleration of the project in the absence of the court’s approval but wanted to understand if the need for such permission was communicated to the LG by any accompanying officers.
Kumar stated in his affidavit-
“To his knowledge, none of the officers present at the site informed the LG about the court’s orders or the need to obtain permission from the Tree Officer under the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994.”
This affidavit was officially filed on July 30.
Earlier in July, the Supreme Court expressed frustration over what it described as a persistent “cover-up” and “blame game” concerning the unauthorized removal of trees.
ALSO READ: Supreme Court Directs Delhi Govt. and Agencies Over “illegal” and “high-handed acts” of Tree felling
Affidavits were also submitted by other key officials who accompanied Saxena during his visit, including the additional principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Suneesh Buxy and an engineer-member of the DDA. Buxy mentioned that the LG was informed about the necessary permissions required by the forest department under the DPTA and the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, which were still pending at that time.
“The forest department was instructed by the LG to expedite the process in this matter.”
-Buxy’s affidavit stated.
Similarly, the DDA affidavit corroborated that no official on-site briefed Saxena about the necessity to seek the Supreme Court’s approval. Engineer member Ashok Kumar Gupta recounted that the LG had informed him that the forest department had already secured approval for the tree felling under the DPTA and “directed the officers of the department to convey the approval to DDA at the earliest.”
The tree felling occurred between February 16 and 26. Following this, the court instructed the Forest Survey of India (FSI) to determine the number of trees felled using advanced technology. The DDA’s affidavit mentioned that the trees were cut down under a “mistaken notion” since permission under the DPTA and an order by the Tree Authority dated February 15 were already obtained. However, by the time the Supreme Court reviewed DDA’s application in March, the trees had already been cut.
