HC seeks action plan to preserve Delhi's forests

The Delhi High Court, informed on Wednesday that about 50 percent of notified forest areas have been "encroached upon", asked the Delhi government to come out with a concrete action plan to preserve the forest area falling under city's region.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Justice Sanjeev Sachdeva directed the Delhi chief secretary to hold a meeting of all agencies concerned within a week and come out with action plan that should include provisions for restoring the encroached forestland from illegal and unauthorized encroachers.

The bench's order came after amicus curiae Kailash Vasudev told it that 50 percent of the forest cover in Delhi was under encroachment and the boundaries of such land are not demarcated.

As per forest department records, Delhi has green cover of 20.8 percent, while the master plan 2021 require it to be 30 percent.