Trees of Delhi

To

The Hon'ble Minister,

Ministry of Environment & Forests,

Govt of India,

Indira Paryavaran Bhawan,Jor Bagh

New Delhi 

Sir,

Subject : Trees of Delhi

May I in the first instance felicitate you on your appointment, as the new Minster Environment and Forests GOI

With reference to my various emails to yourselves on the subject of Trees and Forests of Delhi through various forums, I have been putting forward the viewpoint, that although the Ministry and Forest Department has been doing excellent work of both protecting our forests and increasing the green cover, the task is so enormous, it cannot be handled by the Government of India, and the State Governments alone.

The citizens movement has very strong undercurrents in this city and country, by the trees, forests, parks, being under the sole ownership of the Government of India, or GNCTD the citizens feel disenfranchised, and consequently disinterested in the efforts of the state Environment and Forest Department, and the Delhi Garden and Parks Society, PWD DDA and a multitude of governmental agencies.

Any effort therefore, has to be a joint effort, and more so, a community based effort to grow the green cover in our city. With norms being laid out at 33% cover, we have a long way to go, and the various departments mentioned above would be well advised to harness the power of the citizen to make it truly a peoples movement.

My sustained efforts with the Secretary, Environment and Forests, Chief Conservator Forests, CEO Delhi Parks and Garden Society have met with interest, but owing to the multitude of land owning agencies and myriad decision making bodies,most ideas have failed to take off.

Needless to say, Government of India or GNCTD cannot remain the sole repository of  forestry, and communities have to be involved at all levels, from conception and decision making,(which currently consists of only government representatives), to implementation and maintenance.It is here Sir, your urgent intervention is sought to energise moribund government agencies, getting them to form partnerships with communities, residential enclaves nature organisations NGO's and community initiatives. At this point community initiatives receive little to no support from governmental agencies.

I would cite the example of ourselves, Sir, residents of Defence Colony, New Delhi, 110024, a colony of excellent tree cover due the foresight of the generation before us, but the ageing trees are in urgent need of replacement, for which the responsible agencies are in a state of indifference, passing the buck between each other.

The following action is urgently required:

1) Conduct a tree census

2) Map the biodiversity of the existing tree population

3) Prepare a cogent plan for replanting, extension planting, infilling and pruning.

5) Assign the task to a single agency to work with residents of the colony to negate passing of the buck as is presently the situation between MCD / DDA / PWD.

We have great hope Sir, that with your personal intervention,we can carry forward the green cover challenge of raising it from its present 19.97% to 33% as the national mission on forest cover.

We look forward to your spirited action on the subject, to take the citizens movement forward and save our city from being desertified in the not too distant future.

Yours Faithfully,

Rajeev Suri

Friends of Defence Colony.Org

D 68 Defence Colony

New Delhi 110024

Mobile : 9810304580