Farmhouses, unacquired land, ‘alternate route’: On the road to DDA’s green cover blunder

The Delhi Development Authority as well the Lieutenant Governor’s office are under fire from the Supreme Court over the hacking of around 1,100 trees for the widening of a 2.2-km stretch – part of the road from Chattarpur Main Road towards Fatehpur Beri. 

Hearing a petition by a social activist, the court had seen the DDA’s action as its contempt, since the trees were part of the legally protected Delhi Ridge area and were cut without waiting for the court’s permission. The DDA, on the other hand, had reportedly been under pressure from the Centre to improve traffic flow to the AIIMS-CAPFIMS campus in Maidan Garhi, and reports alleged that the L-G, who is the chairman of the authority, had a role to play in expediting the felling of these trees in February. 

The DDA was earlier asked by the court to re-examine its plan to minimise the impact on trees. A visit to the stretch by Newslaundry underlined more blind spots. 

Did the DDA  consider acquiring private land on the left side of Gaushala road – a one-kilometre road part of the 2.2-km route – before deciding to cut the trees which were on the right? Instead of picking Gaushala road, there was also an alternate, longer route available to Saket. But did the DDA even look into the possibility of widening that one and its ecological impact?

The Gaushala road has around six farmhouses, one ashram, an under-construction bungalow, four homes, empty plots, and one small shop on the left, and an under-construction widened road on deforested land, after two farmhouses and a couple of small shops on the right. It ends at the Rajpur road T-point, near the South Asian University campus.

A right turn from this T-point takes you to CAPFIMS via a 1.2-km stretch, where the right side again has the deforested Ridge area, and the left houses some part of the SAU campus, a nursery, one demolished house, empty plots, and a large boundary compound. However, this T-point to CAPFIMS is also connected to another road, which is a longer route to Saket; it’s not clear whether this featured in the DDA’s discussions at any stage.

The court also referred to an alleged email from a DDA engineer to a contractor, mentioning the L-G’s instructions to hack trees after his alleged visit to the area in February. The court has asked the engineer to file a detailed affidavit within 10 days  on exactly what transpired during the visit. “He will also state if any oral direction or instruction was issued for cutting of trees.” 

What was the DDA’s plan about? But first, let’s journey through the two stretches.

The first kilometre: Gaushala road

With a sparse population, the 1-km stretch is dotted with a mix of establishments, ranging from farmhouses and residences to an ashram on the left. On the right is the deforested land after two farmhouses – Singhania and 21 Sarna Farm – and a couple of small shops. It continues until it intersects with Rajpur road, where the South Asian University is situated.

While the DDA hastily cut down trees to widen the road, it left the two farmhouses and the shops on the right side of the road within the initial 200 metres untouched. 

Several locals claimed they did not know who owned these private properties and said the road widening work had been halted after a petition was filed before the Supreme Court.

“Many trees have been cut. Even a magistrate once visited here to inspect. I’ve heard the DDA cut more trees than necessary,” said a shopkeeper on the road.

“They are all millionaires; otherwise, how could they build such big houses?” said Satish, a local auto driver. 

Newslaundry did not find any names at the entrances of the four other farmhouses on this stretch. All of these are large plots, each covering around three acres. One plot also houses an ashram, indicated by a sign at its gate: Sri Gnanananda Ashram.

The road to CAPFIMS

A right turn from the T-point on Rajpur road leads to a 1.2-km stretch towards CAPFIMS. On the right are patches of barren green land. On the left is a part of the SAU campus, a nursery, a six-acre plot and a house.

This road then intersects with a wide road in front of the AIIMS-CAPFIMS, leading to its entry gate. Many new establishments are emerging next to the new facility, such as an under-construction CRPF camp and a residential complex for NIA, among others. 

Notably, the other side of the Rajpur road intersection – other than the Gaushala road stretch – already hosts several prominent establishments, including an Ayurveda College and National Research Centre for Integrated Pest Management, and it connects the area to Saket via Maidan Garhi.

The court case and DDA’s plan 

According to official documents, the proposal to widen the road has been under discussion since 2022. The Delhi Development Authority’s plan was approved by its Unified Traffic and Transportation Infrastructure (Planning & Engineering) Centre, or the UTTIPEC, in August 2022. While approving the project, UTTIPEC noted that the road widening involves forest, private, gram sabha and DDA land, with hurdles linked to the presence of forest and private land.

UTTIPEC also observed that the project faces significant challenges because the land parcels in the road alignment are either owned by the forest department, requiring proper clearance, or fall under DDA lands overlapping with the Morphological Ridge, for which there is a lack of clarity.

The Delhi Ridge forest, protected by the Ridge Management Board – a non-statutory body created in 1995 following a Supreme Court directive – is at the centre of this controversy. Despite this protection, the DDA cut down trees without court permission, leading to the current contempt petition.

The petitioner, Bindu Kapurea, learned about the tree-felling exercise on February 23. On February 24, Kapurea witnessed that a significant portion of the forest had been decimated and the land levelled by machines. She promptly called the Green Helpline of the Delhi government’s department of forests and wildlife to file a complaint. The call operator informed her that she would soon receive a complaint number.

On February 25, Kapurea received a call from the forest guard, who asked for the location of the tree cutting, which she provided. The Forest Guard later informed her that the tree cutting was deemed proper and legal as the L-G had given permission via a notification dated February 14. Kapurea requested a copy of the notification, which was shared with her on WhatsApp on February 27.

According to that notification, the L-G exempted an area of 4.9 hectares of forest land from the provisions of sub-section (3) of section 9 of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, 1994. This section deals with the procedure for obtaining permission to fell, cut, remove, or dispose of a tree, and sub-section (3) states that any such application should be decided by the Tree Officer within 60 days.

Kapurea’s petition contended that the notification does not permit the clearing of land or cutting of trees either in the forest or on non-forest land. It also highlighted an application filed by the DDA before the Supreme Court on February 15, seeking permission to fell or translocate 1,051 trees. On March 4, the court rejected the DDA’s application, stating that the agency had not obtained any permission under the Forest Act and instructed it to re-examine the proposals with expert help to minimise tree cutting.

However, the petition argued that the DDA did not inform the court about the reality on the ground, where the area had already been deforested.

“It is apparent that the DDA did not wait for the adjudication of the aforesaid applications and, without seeking permission from this court, went ahead to clear the Ridge Reserved Forest and trees on non-forest land for the construction of the road,” the petition read.

L-G’s role, ‘email to engineer’

According to media reports, there has been significant pressure from the Centre to widen the road, aiming to make CAPFIMS operational by early this year, with the Delhi L-G actively pursuing the project. An MoU was signed in March this year to operationalise Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences as an extension of the AIIMS campus.

In December 2023, the Times of India reported that the Delhi government had begun acquiring land to widen the road amid this push. Reportedly, L-G VK Saxena had directed the DDA to explore the possibility of road widening in 2022, and the DDA had appointed a consultant to prepare a detailed project report.

The Times of India also quoted DDA officials as saying that L-G Saxena visited the site twice in November 2023 to "clear the bottlenecks."

However, controversy arose over Saxena’s role in the tree-felling when court-found emails from an executive engineer to the contractor referred to a “site visit by the L-G on February 3” and that the “emails state the L-G, after the visit, directed to clear the trees”.

This prompted the court to seek a response from the DDA regarding whether the L-G, the chairman of the authority, had any involvement in the matter.

On Wednesday, the DDA informed the court that it was unable to confirm whether the record of the L-G's site visit on February 3 was available. The court dismissed the DDA’s plea for more time to provide this "simple information," considering it not bona fide and suggesting a “cover-up” despite issuing a notice.

“We have issued a contempt notice to the vice-chairman, but that does not mean we want to send him to jail. However, he must come clean before the court about who issued directions for the felling of trees. If he does that, he will be rendering great service to the environment and to the justice delivery system.”

Newslaundry reached out to the DDA seeking clarity on several aspects of the projects. This report will be updated if a response is received.

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