Is planting saplings a solution to the felling of trees?

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Is planting saplings a solution to the felling of trees?

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• FIRST PERSPECTIVE: YES, IT IS.

1. City-clusters contribute the most to GDP growth – 32% urban population gave 60% of our GDP!
2. Globally, mega-cities (> 1 crore population) have been great engines of growth
3. Delhi may become the most populous mega-city by 2028 (UN); huge migration is expected
4. Rural India facing subsistence living and distress, due to huge population engaged in low GDP output 
5. Cities will attract rural youth, and must be prepared for economic viability and environmental sustainability – these two seem contrary
6. Urban planners grapple with the two issues – China paid the price, and is now trying to recover from the damage done to environment. Indian cities lack basic infra. Most polluted cities are Indian.
7. Planning for least environmental damage in cities should be our focus. Felling trees is a negative in the immediate but carries lot of long-term positives.
8. Long traffic jams will do more environmental harm, than felling trees to build metro lines or elevated corridors! Go underground or elevated. Provide large-scale compensatory afforestment.

• 20 SECOND PERSPECTIVE: NO, IT IS NOT.

1. Compensatory Afforestation (CA) is about offsetting damage done when land use is changed in  forested areas, or trees are cut. It has been done for a long time in India.
2. CA policy should be rejected outright. Three reasons – 
1. Growing trees cannot substitute for altering shared habitats. These are places for birds and animals, and for human recreation and shelter. They do water-recharging. 
2. CA hasn’t worked as enough land to grow trees without encumbrances is usually not available. Funds do not get released in time, and Forest Dept. doesn’t do the CA job efficiently. 
3. Governments carry out afforestation in floodplains, grasslands and regions unsuitable for tree cover! Saplings are dumped in empty areas which may not be suitable for trees.  In Delhi, Yamuna floodplains is the chosen spot.  (Citizens questioning the WTC construction) 

• Laws are useless: Forest (Conservation) Act of 1980 and others were to preserve trees. In the name of CA, more than Rs.40,000 crores is collected, and hasn’t helped. Laws are harming us!
• THIRD PERSPECTIVE: BOTH CAN HAPPEN TOGETHER. 

1. Strong positions : People from both camps feel strongly about felling trees for urban development. 
2. 30 crore new citizens will settle in Indian cities by 2050. We have to build at scale now. 
3. The only available land in cities is wooded – urban forests, tree-lined streets, parks etc. 
4. Urban trees reduce air pollution, cool cities, increase groundwater recharging. 
5. Numbers – PM10 levels reduced by 75%, temperature by 3-5 o C 
6. Mature trees are incredible as they can sequester enough carbon that 90 small trees would. Saplings will take decades to do that. 
7. Fast growing trees (eucalyptus and acacia) do more damage by sapping groundwater, and are poor substitutes for giant native peepal or mango or tamarind tree! 
8. Replacement saplings are inaccessible to people as they are planted far away from where trees were felled (gated areas like defence land, corporates, schools etc.) 
9. Urban project design is done by engineers with no training in ecology. With proper inputs, many trees can be saved while doing projects (big trees in the medians). 
10. CA has to be consultative, and urban planning more collaborative.

• Summary : Three perspectives on “whether planting saplings is a solution to felling of trees”

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