The Delhi High Court on Thursday stayed any further felling of trees in the national Capital, saying there is no other way to mitigate the ecological and environmental degradation in the city.

Justice Nazmi Waziri, who was hearing a contempt case concerning the preservation of trees, noted that over 29,000 trees were cut down in the past three years in the city and questioned if Delhi has the “luxury” to bear such numbers.“We have stopped felling of trees... Till the next date, no felling of trees,” the judge said as the case was listed for further hearing on June 2.

 “A total of 29,946 trees were allowed to be cut in the past three years, which on computation comes to 27 trees per day i.E. 1.13 per hour,” the judge noted.

 The court stated that there is no record with respect to the girth and the age of the trees that were allowed to be cut down or the status of the corresponding transplantation of trees and emphasised that large scale denudation of fully grown trees worsens the ecology. 

The status report filed by the Deputy Conservator of Forests for the central zone informed that in total, 13,490 trees were permitted to be cut and 16,456 trees were directed to be transplanted in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021.

The contempt plea being heard by the court was filed by Neeraj Sharma, represented by advocate Aditya N Prasad, and pertains to the trees in the Vikas Marg area in East Delhi.

Last month, the court had expressed its concern over the cutting down of fully grown trees and said that it would be logical and prudent to transplant such trees instead of cutting them down and the “self-defeating exercise” by the Forest Department of the Delhi Government “needs to be arrested at the earliest.”