Under Shahri Bagwani (Urban Farming), residents can grow fruits, vegetables, and plants on their terraces if there is enough sunlight available. It would help citizens in avoiding pesticides and harmful chemicals in the food products that they consume on a day-to-day basis, while also increasing the green cover in the city and promoting community living. Furthermore Training cell of Department of Forest and Wildlife, GNCTD will be conducting awareness workshops all over Delhi on urban farming across different socio-economic groups in the city of Delhi through master trainers followed by online support by experts on a weekly basis.

This rampant deforestation eventually manifested in the devastating environmental degradation of the city. Hence, in order to protect and preserve the trees and thereby safeguard the environment, the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA) was passed on 12th October 1994 by the legislative Assembly of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Under the provision of this Act a Tree Authority had been established for governing all the issues related to tree preservation and conservation in whole National Capital Territory of Delhi.

Important definitions under DPTA, 1994
(Section 2)

• “Tree” means: any woody plant whose branches spring from and are supported upon a trunk or body and whose trunk or body is not less than five centimetres in diameter at a height of thirty centimetres from the ground level and is not less than one metre in height from the ground level”.
• “To fell a Tree” means: with its cognate expression, means severing the trunk from the roots, uprooting the tree and includes bulldozing, cutting, girdling, lopping, pollarding, applying arboricides, burning or damaging a tree in any other manner
• “Tree Officer” means: a forest officer appointed as such by the Government for the purpose of this Act.
• No person shall fell or remove or dispose of any tree or forest produce in any land, whether in his ownership or occupancy or otherwise, except with the previous permission of the Tree Officer.
• However, if the tree is not immediately felled, there would be grave danger to life or property or traffic, the owner of the land may take immediate action to fell such tree and report the fact to the Tree Officer within twenty-four hours of such felling.

As per Section 9 of the Act, no person shall hunt any wild animal specified in Schedule I, II, III and IV except as provided under Section 11 and Section 12, according to which hunting of wild animals has been permitted in certain cases and special purposes. The Section 18 provides power to State Government for declaration of Sanctuary. As per Section 49 no person shall purchase, receive or acquire any captive animal, wild animal other than vermin, or any animal article, trophy, uncured trophy, or meat derived therefrom otherwise than from a dealer or from a person authorised to sell or otherwise transfer the same under this Act.

As per its Section 2, this Act provides restrictions on de-reservation of forests or use of forest land for non forest purpose. It states that--- “notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force in a State, no State Government or other authority shall make, except with the prior approval of the Central Government, any order directing-

Concerns were raised as the ecological value of a fully grown tree cannot be matched by planting even 10 new saplings, which was the existing norm. Therefore, considering the requests for removal of large number of trees, and to make every possible effort to save the trees affected by developmental activities in Delhi, various forest experts, came together and proposed to comprehensively revise the norms for compensatory plantation as applicable under the relevant provisions of the DPTA, 1994. The objective of the revised norms was to discourage tree felling altogether and ensuring maximum likelihood of survival of existing trees through scientific transplantation.

In light of the aforementioned ground, the Department of Forest and Wildlife, Govt. of NCT of Delhi notified “Tree Transplantation Policy 2020”, on 24.12.2020. This was a pioneer move yet again emphasizing the pro-sustainable development stance of the Government. The philosophy of the policy is to promote sustainable infrastructure development by incorporating the principle of an ecologically viable planning for major development projects.

Salient Features of the Policy

• Retain maximum numbers of trees at site.
• First preference to transplant the trees at the felling site, itself.
• Second preference to transplant the trees along PWD roads and Nurseries.
• Third preference to transplant the trees nearest to the felling site.
• Minimum 80% (excluding exotic species) of the total trees to be transplanted.
• Need to ensure 80% survival rate of the trees to be transplanted.

Salient Features of Tree Preservation Plan

• The project outline with respect to trees that can be preserved on-site, trees that will need transplantation and trees that need to be felled
• Identification of tree relocation/transplantation strategy
• Identification of land/area where the trees will be transplanted
• Allocation of funds for transplantation
• Assessment of development plan in conjunction with the tree preservation plan with timelines

The said Convention has the main objective of conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of utilization of genetic resources. It is considered necessary to provide for conservation, sustainable utilization and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of utilization of genetic resources and also to give effect to the said Convention.

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 is the Act enacted by the Parliament of India to meet the obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).

The Biological Diversity Act, 2002 is an Act to provide for conservation of biological diversity, sustainable use of its components and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the use of biological resources, knowledge and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

As per Section 22 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, notwithstanding anything contained in this section, no State Biodiversity Board shall be constituted for a Union territory and in relation to a Union Territory, the National Biodiversity Authority shall exercise the powers and perform the functions of a State Biodiversity Board for that Union Territory. As per Section 7 of this Act, no person, who is a citizen of India or a body corporate, association or organisation which is registered in India, shall obtain any biological resource for commercial utilisation, or bio-survey and bio-utilisation for commercial utilisation except after giving prior intimation to the State Biodiversity Board concerned, which is for NCT of Delhi would be National Biodiversity Authority.

As per its Section 2, this Act provides restrictions on de-reservation of forests or use of forest land for non forest purpose. It states that--- “notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force in a State, no State Government or other authority shall make, except with the prior approval of the Central Government, any order directing-

• that any reserved forest (within the meaning of the expression “reserved forest” in any law for the time being in force in that State) or any portion thereof, shall cease to be reserved
• that any forest land or any portion thereof may be used for any non-forest purposes
• that any forest land or any portion thereof may be assigned by way of lease of otherwise to any private person or to any authority, corporation, agency or any other Organization not owned, managed or controlled by Government.
• that any forest land or any portion thereof may be cleared of trees which have grown naturally in that land or portion, for the purpose of using it for afforestation

As per the provisions of the Section 2 of this Act, the user agency who wants to undertake any construction project on any of the notified forest land has to obtain permission from Central Government and need to provide land equal in area to the land they want to divert for non-forestry purpose. The land is provided for compensatory afforestation which is to be done by the State Forest Department from the funds provided by Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, Govt. of India under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), Act.

The Act gives certain powers to the Central Government to take measures for the purpose of protecting and improving the quality of the environment and to prevent environmental pollution. The Act is an “umbrella” legislation designed to provide a framework for Central Government coordination of the activities of various central and state authorities established under previous laws, such as the Water Act and the Air Act.

Important Definitions

• “Environment" includes water, air and land and the inter-relationship which exists among and between water, air and land, and human beings, other living creatures, plants, micro-organism and property.
• "Environmental Pollutant" means any solid, liquid or gaseous substance present in such concentration as may be, or tend to be, injurious to environment
• "Environmental Pollution" means the presence in the environment of any environmental pollutant