Trees and Plants make the environment and surroundings look green and beautiful. But, just like all of us make visits to the barber for trimming our tresses, for continuing to look good and presentable, and for healthy growth of our tresses, similarly, trees and plants around us also need to be trimmed/pruned on a regular basis (all would agree to this). For this, the Forest Department had promulgated certain ‘guidelines’ for regulating pruning of trees, and had clarified that pruning of branches of girth size 15.7 cm is normal and does not require any permission from the Department.
However, permission is required even for light pruning if girth size is more. Heavy Pruning of course, requires permission. The guidelines were framed probably keeping in mind that several residents of colonies throughout the city were facing tremendous inconvenience owing to unpruned trees encroaching their spaces/balconies/windows, threatening stability of their buildings, security hazard, and personal safety.
The government attempted to take care of “reckless pruning” (which is an offence) and extensive amputation of live branches of trees by some residents of the city. Stringent laws to prevent unnecessary felling of trees in the national Capital has become an obstacle to Delhi Power Department’s commitment to provide uninterrupted electricity supply to the city.
Tree Pruning is one of the most common issues faced by MCD, PWD and the Forest Department. Even otherwise these civic agencies are supposed to conduct light pruning on a regular basis. But as explained above, any pruning in excess of the girth size requires necessary permission from the Forest Department, which is applied for by the land owning agency (MCD/PWD). Citizens make a request to either of these , who in turn apply for permission to the Forest Department.
A lot of time is wasted in this to and fro process leading to frustration amongst citizens. But then, the solution is unknown ……??? Now with the stage set for passing of new guidelines/law, the situation has become more stringent as permission is now also required to be sought from the ‘Tree Officer’.
All trees around the colonies have overgrown (especially after the monsoons) and require a lot of care to be taken for them to continue to retain their strength and beauty. Some of them are literally bending and touching the road, the overgrown branches of others are touching each other, and have created an arch like structure which prevents sunlight from entering homes, etc, affecting the grass cover. Impatience is creeping in with the residents coz’ of delay in granting permission, which has lead to residents, at times, ploughing the path of ‘taking to pruning themselves’. But then, are they really at fault ?
