Saving our environment: Why doesn't govt care?

It boggles the mind that, in this day and age, the authorities should think it fit to cut thousands of trees in urban spaces. The latest example of this mindless “development” syndrome is the National Building Construction Corporation’s attempt to undertake the building of some half a dozen housing complexes for bureaucrats in the heart of Delhi that would involve chopping around 17,000 full-grown old trees that would be impossible to replace for decades. For the time being, this has been kept on hold by two simultaneous developments. The first is that ordinary people have threatened a 1970s-style “chipko” (literally, clinging to trees) action. A public campaign has begun and alarm has spread all around.

As usual, the higher authorities are silent. The Union environment ministry and the concerned departments of the Delhi government — if they are indeed moved by citizens’ concerns — are being obtuse. On the other hand, the Delhi High Court, while entertaining the petition of a public-spirited doctor, asked on Monday if the government thinks it is right to demolish so many trees. This is the other intervention in favour of environmental concerns. It may yet save the day. The nation’s capital should set an example for the country in environmental matters. Delhi, after all, is the world’s most polluted city. But the lack of concern it has shown for the environment speaks of a certain moral degradation. Earlier, in Delhi, pollutants being trapped, making breathing difficult and placing a strain on the health budget of households as well as governments, was typically a winter phenomenon. This year, for the first time, pollution has fluctuated between “severe” and “very poor” in summer too. None of this appears to have touched the powers-that-be. In Bengaluru too, it was public action that saved over a thousand trees when the Siddaramaiah government was planning a steel flyover.

In Mumbai, a few thousand trees were meant to be felled to build a metro car shed. If the bureaucracy is hide-bound, why have our elected representatives, in Assemblies and in Parliament, become apathetic to such crucial concerns? In New Delhi’s case too, the NBCC argues it has paid Delhi’s tree department money to plant thousands of saplings for greening purposes elsewhere in the city. This is a bogus argument. The varieties to be planted aren’t native to Delhi. They are kept for decorative uses and will have little bearing on the environment.