India News | NDMC to Launch Exercise to Find Reasons Behind Loss of Trees in Lutyens' Delhi

New Delhi, Jul 28 (PTI) The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) will launch an exercise to find out specific reasons behind loss of trees as the civic body has lost 1,813 trees, including around 300 heritage trees, in the last six years in Lutyens' Delhi, officials said.

The civic body officials have prima facie found that the trees are being uprooted because of concretisation, frequent road cutting, trench less utilities work, ageing, termite and type of soil (sandy gravel soil) and the exercise will focus on suggesting remedial measures to save existing trees in the region.

The NDMC areas are home to the high and mighty of the country, including Union ministers and parliamentarians besides many top industrialists. Parliament House, offices of all the ministries, Supreme Court and residence of Supreme Court judges, senior bureaucrats and senior military officers are in NDMC areas.

According to official statistics, Lutyens' Delhi is losing over 250 trees per year and the area has lost as many as 1,813 trees since 2015.

The officials said out of 1,813 trees, around 300 heritage trees were also lost between financial year 2015-16 and 2021-22.

"We are losing nearly 250 trees per year in the NDMC area which is a big number. This is a growing concern and it calls for corrective actions and efforts to ascertain reasons," S Chellaiah, director (horticulture) of NDMC, told PTI.

"We are starting an exercise to examine fallen and dead trees to find out precise reasoning behind such a rapid fall of trees. We will use modern techniques and take help from experts to know all possible factors leading to felling or decay of trees, especially the heritage ones," he added.

Chellaiah said the exercise will help the civic body in conservation of existing trees.

"Heritage trees are commonly those which are above 80 years old. Currently, there are around 15,000 indigenous trees that are almost a century old and need more advanced care and conservation,” he said.

"These indigenous tree species such as neem, peepal, pilkhan, jamun, arjun, khirni, imli among others were planted in the NDMC area when British architect Edwin Landseer Lutyens was entrusted with the task to plan New Delhi in 1911," he added.

According to a survey conducted by the NDMC, out of 1,813 trees, 559 were uprooted trees, 783 were dead and dry trees while 424 trees were cut for construction activities between 2015-16 and 2021-22.

The data also revealed that nearly 60 neem trees were uprooted in the last six years followed by silver oak, gulmohar, peepal and pilkhan trees.

The NDMC is losing heritage pilkhan trees on Zakir Hussain Road; neem trees on Abdul Kalam Road and Prithviraj Road, Shahjahan Road; peepal trees on Mandir Marg, Panchsheel Marg, Mother Teresa Road, Sardar Patel Marg; arjun trees on Janpath, Mother Teresa Road, Teen Murti, BKS Marg.

Chellaiah said prima facie, it has been found that the trees were being uprooted because of concretisation, frequent road cutting, trench less utilities work, ageing, termite and type of soil (sandy gravel soil).

"In the NDMC area, most of the utility pipelines, wires, cables are laid underground without any trench. Roads are frequently cut to repair such utilities that damage roots which make the tree vulnerable for termite or fungal attack and the tree decays,” he said.

The NDMC official added that concretised pavements also hamper growth of the tree thereby compromising on the tree's load bearing capacity making it prone to get uprooted.

"We have to adopt a tree centric approach and use advanced methods to deal with such situations. Some policy has to be drawn to sustain trees. The authorities should also work on developing a central duct system where all utilities are laid and roads are not cut frequently,” he suggested.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)