Act fast on saving trees, court tells Delhi government

NEW DELHI - The Delhi high court has directed the city government to fast complete its work on saving trees that are dying due to concretisation of pavements in the capital.

Informing the division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar, the government’s standing counsel Nazmi Waziri said, “We have started saving the trees on major streets across the capital and will be able to save trees that are on the verge of dying.”

Counsel also submitted a bunch of photographs to the court showing the progress of work near the high court premises.

The bench asked the government to complete the work fast and asked it to file a status report by Oct 28, the next date of hearing.

The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by S.C. Jain, who pointed out that trees on pavements in the city were falling because their roots were becoming weak due to concretisation of pavements.

Appearing for the petitioner, lawyer Sugreev Dubey contended that “trees were getting uprooted even after the slightest of storms, which in turn was leading to huge jams across the capital’s roads”.

He cited the heavy rains that lashed the city July 27 and said: “The roots of the trees are destroyed because they get little space to grow and anchor the trees. The concrete pavements are preventing adequate supply of water needed for growth of roots of the trees.”