‘No space to breathe’: Delhi HC pulls up officials over uprooting of trees during thunderstorm
India Today
The Delhi High Court held the city authorities accountable for the damage to the green cover of the city during the recent thunderstorms that caused uprooting of trees.
The Delhi High Court held city authorities responsible for the uprooting of numerous trees during the recent storms. The judge said that it was because of the “callousness” of the officials that the city “lost hundreds of trees in the heart of the city.”
On May 30, a storm that was categorised to be of the “severe” category uprooted at least 300 trees in the city as per civic authorities. 77 trees had fallen just in the area under the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), according to its Horticulture wing.
On May 31, Delhi Lt Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena assured that the issue will be addressed at the earliest. "I share the concern of every resident of Delhi about the maintenance and upkeep of trees in the City,” he said in a tweet.
Let me assure you that we have taken the matter seriously and will address it at the earliest.
Justice Najmi Waziri, blaming the concretisation of the capital for the loss of trees in the storm, said that it was all “courtesy largely to the agencies owning the roads or permitting concretisation of the earth around it, and indeed, callously disregarding care, upkeep of the trees.”
READ MORE | Notice to Centre, ASI over idols of Hindu deities ‘buried’ in Agra mosque
