Can Delhi afford cutting of trees?
Delhi high court on Monday stayed any further tree-cutting till July 4.
As per the WHO, Delhi was ranked 1 on particulate matter levels (PM 10 and PM 2.5) among all mega cities (populations over 14 million) in the world. “As urban air quality declines, the risk of stroke, heart disease, lung cancer, and chronic and acute respiratory diseases, including asthma, increases for the people who live there,” it said.
In this scenario, to further worsen the situation by removing the city’s green cover borders not on mere negligence but almost “state-sponsored death”.
Delhi had been declared an “air pollution-control area” more than 30 years ago and that all activity needed to bear this in mind, the plea stated.
In Sarojini Nagar for example, 11,000 out of 13,128 trees are to be cut, while in Kasturba Nagar, all 520 trees are to be removed, without leaving even one standing. No amount of landscaping and tree planting can properly compensate for the loss of precious green cover, the plea added.
I believe with all the above situation we can not afford a single tree to be fell.
On the name of development lots of Forest being cut already and we can not afford more of that to happen.