SC halts tree felling at Railway expansion site in Delhi’s Dwarka forest

The Supreme Court halted the felling of trees near Dwarka on a plea seeking protection of Delhi’s green cover which alleged that nearly 25,000 trees situated in the Shahabad Mohammadpur ‘deemed forest’ were sought to be felled for the purpose of expanding a railway facility at Bijwasan.
Stopping all construction linked to the project, a bench headed by justice AS Oka said, “We restrain the respondents from felling and/or damaging in any manner the trees or otherwise causing damage to the trees on the subject land.”
The court was hearing a petition filed by two individuals – Naveen Solanki and Ajay Harish Joshi, one claiming to be a local resident and the other an animal activist, who approached the top court against an order passed by the National Green Tribunal on February 13 this year refusing to halt the tree felling as it held that the 120 acre area of green cover does not qualify as ‘forest land’ under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.
Senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan appearing for the petitioners along with advocate Manan Verma pointed out that the area is a deemed forest and enjoys the same protection as forest following a 1996 decision of the top court in TN Godavarman v Union of India. He told the court that the area is located adjacent to the Delhi airport and acts as the primary filter for the carbon dioxide, besides, serving as the lungs of the city, particularly for residents in south-west Delhi, where green cover is significantly less compared to other parts of the city.
The 2023 amendments to the Forest Act which abolished the term ‘deemed forests’ are currently under challenge in the top court. In these proceedings, the court had issued an order in February 2024 reiterating that there will be no dilution of the 1996 definition of forests as provided by the TN Godavarman judgment.
The bench has sought responses from the Rail Land Development Authority under the Ministry of Railways, the Delhi forest department, and the company executing the project. Posting the matter for October 21, the bench held, “We make it clear that no construction shall be carried out in the subject land.”
The petition filed through advocate Ankur Sood traced the history behind the land in question that was transferred by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) to the Indian Railways in 2008 for re-development of the Bijwasan railway station into a world class railway station. It envisaged provision of parking, pick and drop facilities, sufficient space for circulation, and commercial space for providing allied services to station users.
The gradual deforestation of the land began in the later part of 2021 and continued in 2022, against which the petitioner filed a complaint with the Delhi Forest department. The petitioner noticed that RLDA adopted unethical techniques by dumping tonnes of soil over fully-grown living trees, leaving them buried. Subsequently, the complaint filed with the forest department came to be registered and in June 2022, an order was passed by the deputy conservator of forests, Delhi government imposing a fine of ₹5.93 crore on RLDA on a finding that 990 trees were illegally felled.
The petitioner pointed out that work is still going on in the area. The petition before the NGT was filed by another local resident. The present petition sought stay of the NGT order as the said order was based on lack of evidence and overlooked the forest classification criteria laid down by the top court, besides overlooking the insufficient precautionary measures undertaken by RLDA.