SCHOOL OF HAPPINESS

Subject : Nailing of Green Trees in New Delhi

Nailing of green trees is a quite common phenomenon in Delhi NCR region. Trees are frequently found nailed for displaying advertisement boards, signages and hanging wires, regardless of the fact that such nailing stands in direct contradiction of our presently existing scheme of laws. Moreover, guidelines of the National Green Tribunal are also very clear on this subject. Recently, on April 22, 2016, a five-member bench headed by NGT Chairperson, Swatanter Kumar asked all civic and land owning agencies to immediately remove all boards, advertisements, signages and nails from trees in their respective areas. Anyone whose board is found nailed to a tree is to be prosecuted by the relevant authority.

The bench observed that based on facts presented before it on Tuesday, “it is clear that all the public authorities have failed to discharge their duties and statutory obligations. They have not only violated various special statutes but also infringed their legal obligation arising out of the Environment Protection Act 1986. It is the obligation of the state to provide a healthy environment to the citizens and redress injuries to trees”.

Issue : Trees found nailed in Vasant Vihar region of New Delhi

While working on a project our Sarayu team has come across several trees in Vasant Kunj (New Delhi) region, brutally nailed by DDA Officials to hang steel wires on them. Our team has took pictures of those trees, which looks like this:

As visible from the pictures all the trees were nailed from every possible corner for carving out support for hanging steel wires. We have sent these pictures to our legal team to lodge an official complaint in this regard.

Action taken in response:

On 25 June, 2020, we lodged an official complaint to the higher authorities of Delhi Development Authorities. The said complaint reads as follows:

Result of our complaint :

After lodging the complaint to the concerned authority, within two days nails were removed from the trees along with the steel wires. And now the fresh images those trees looks like this:

What’s next ?

Heading towards a bigger initiative.

The result produced on-ground through our complaint gives us hope to further extend this initiative to seek the participation of public at large. We therefore request you all to send us pictures if you come across any green tree nailed like this. We will lodge an official complaint from our end addressing concerned authorities. Your little efforts can help us in saving green trees from unnecessary pain and suffering.