Eight years after the Union environment ministry approved diversion of forest land for the Delhi–Mumbai Expressway, there is still no clear public record of how many trees have been planted to compensate for the loss, raising questions about compliance with environmental safeguards.
The approval, granted in August 2018, allowed diversion of 51.12 hectares of forest land for the Badshahpur–Sohna stretch of the expressway. Under the Forest (Conservation) Act, 1980, such clearances are conditional upon compensatory afforestation, requiring trees to be planted to offset forest loss. However, official data detailing where and how this was carried out remains incomplete.
RTI Reply Reveals Gaps in Afforestation Details
The lack of clarity emerged through a Right to Information reply issued earlier this month by the Divisional Forest Officer (Territorial), Gurgaon. The reply stated that 42,468 saplings were planted in Nuh district during 2025–26 as part of compensatory afforestation linked to the project.
However, the response did not specify how much plantation work was carried out in the years since the diversion approval in 2018, nor did it provide details of exact plantation sites, survival rates, or monitoring reports. It also confirmed that tree transplantation was not undertaken, as it was not permitted by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
According to the reply, compensatory afforestation for the project was proposed in both the Nuh and Morni-Pinjore forest divisions, but only limited, recent plantation data was shared.
Activists Question Compliance With Approval Conditions
Environmental activist Vaishali Rana, who filed the RTI application, said the information provided so far is fragmented and insufficient. She alleged that there is no consolidated record of total trees planted since 2018 or evidence showing whether plantations survived across both identified divisions.
Rana also claimed that compensatory plantations were carried out nearly 350 km away from the diversion site, which she described as a violation of afforestation norms that require ecological compensation to be geographically relevant.
She further pointed to a condition in the environment ministry’s approval letter that required the National Highways Authority of India to demarcate plantation sites using four-foot-high cement pillars. According to her, there is little evidence that this condition was properly verified on the ground by either the user agency or forest officials.
Experts Flag Need for Transparent Monitoring
Environmental experts say large infrastructure projects require strict, transparent monitoring of compensatory afforestation, including geo-tagging of plantation sites, public disclosure of compliance data and periodic survival audits.
The issue gains significance in Haryana, which has among the lowest green cover in the country. Forest Survey of India data shows that the state has only 3.6% forest cover. Gurgaon alone lost 2.47 square kilometres of forest cover between 2019 and 2020, while tree cover outside forest areas across Haryana declined by 140 square kilometres during the same period.
Officials have previously cited lack of available land in Gurgaon as a key reason for delays in compensatory plantations linked to multiple development projects.