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The Central Vista Executive Enclave, which will house the Prime Minister’s Office, the Cabinet Secretariat, the National Security Council Secretariat and India House, was granted environmental clearance on Thursday.
The State Environment Impact Assessment Authority (SEIAA) considered the proposal for environmental clearance at a meeting held Wednesday. While it granted environmental clearance, the SEIAA made strong observations about the tree preservation aspect of the project.
The SEIAA noted, “The project will lead to a removal of 60% of trees on site. The SEAC (State Expert Appraisal Committee)/SEIAA tried to get PP (project proponent) to reduce felling of trees but only a few could be saved. The project design was presented as fait accompli. No attempt was made to make any major change in the footprint of the building that would have led to tree preservation on site.” The project is being executed by the Central Public Works Department (CPWD).
Of the 807 trees at the site, 320 will be retained and 487 will be transplanted. In a meeting held in April, the SEIAA had sent the proposal back to the SEAC asking it to examine the implementation of the Tree Transplantation Policy. The SEAC had then constituted a sub-committee to examine the same and review the site plan to retain more trees. However, no changes were made to the site plan and no additional trees were retained. The SEAC recommended the project for environmental clearance earlier this week.
The SEIAA also noted at its meeting Wednesday that a tree survey was not available at the time of planning the project and the “design was made without taking into consideration the large number of trees and their location”.
In the minutes of the meeting, the SEIAA added that the trees on the site may be called heritage trees. “A large number of trees at the site may be called heritage trees – of considerable age and size and more than 3 feet in girth. Such trees provide significant value to the city and add to its biodiversity and the ecosystem services they provide cannot be replaced by planting new saplings which will take up to 50 or more years to reach the age and size of these trees,” the minutes stated.
The minutes of the meeting also mentioned a report in The Indian Express dated August 30 on tree transplantation – ‘Many trees transplanted for Central Vista didn’t survive, forest dept data shows’. The SEIAA cites the report while saying that for the Parliament building project at Plot 118, the CPWD has claimed a survival rate of 66% of transplanted trees, while the forest department has reported survival of just 30% of transplanted trees.
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The SEIAA added: “The PP (project proponent) has to ensure that transplantation agencies which have a track record of poor survival of trees like the one used in Plot No. 118 of the Parliament building project are not engaged for transplantation.” It asked the CPWD to contact the forest department for a list of transplantation agencies that are good.
The minutes also added: “Projects being implemented by public agencies should be held to a higher standard than private commercial projects.”
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