Trees Were At Risk – Here’s How People Power Saved Them (For Now). And What is Tree Blindness?
July 2018
Sometimes I wonder if one person can make a difference. Then I read stories like this one – and I know that yes, absolutely, yes, all of us, each of us, can and do make a difference! People power does work!
The government decided to chop down (kill) 16,000 trees in the city, to make way for housing for government employees. The decision was made in 2016, but the news only became public in June 2018 after media reports highlighted it.
And so many people were horrified! They knew the connection between trees and air pollution – they knew their air quality would worsen significantly without those trees. And the city already had a serious problem with smog.
And so, almost overnight, hundreds of residents, including environmental and anti-pollution organisations, decided people power was needed to fight against it.
Activists began mobilizing opinion and people. The movement gained traction on social media and messaging apps like WhatsApp, inspiring more than 1,000 people to protest in various ways. (Don’t you love it when social media is used for good?).
People organised sit-ins. They set up tree-climbing workshops. They attended candle-light vigils. There were meditation protests. People planted trees and publicized it. And others spent entire days patrolling the areas where the trees were at risk, and kept watch to protect them.
This was people power at its best.
It sounds wonderful! But did it work?
People Power – What They Said
One woman interviewed said she had never protested before, or done any form of activism until now – but she felt so strongly about the trees that she felt she had to do something.
The city, with a population of 20 million, is one of the world’s most polluted cities, with air quality frequently reaching hazardous levels. Luckily, large parts of the city still have substantial green cover, although this has also been depleting due to development projects.
To quote one environmental activist:- “The government is the custodian of citizens’ rights and the environment”. He added that instead of taking steps to “take us out of this environmental hazard”, the government was only making it worse.
Image copyrightGETTY IMAGESAnother activist said “None of the existing trees should be cut as they’re living ecosystems within themselves”.Environmentalist Verhaen Khanna has for several years been trying to cure “tree blindness“, a “disease” which he says is prominent in big cities – that people have no idea about the natural beauty around them. He regularly leads workshops and activities related to climbing trees, meditating under them, walking barefoot on grass plains and trekking across lesser-known forested areas.
Government Reaction to People Power
The federal government seemed to be quite surprised by how many people objected.
Initially, they said they’d only cut down 14,000 trees instead of 16,000. Well, you can imagine what people said about that – it’s not exactly a big concession, is it?
Then they promised to plant 10 saplings for every tree that they cut. But environmentalists knew that that was rubbish.
For a start, saplings have a very, very low survival rate in the city. Plus, they were going to be planted 30km away – what good was that?
“They don’t realize half a century or a full century is gone in creating those organisms using the country’s natural resources,” said one activist.
And so, the protests continued.
And finally, on 28 June, the government agreed not to cut any trees for new buildings. WOW!
“We will revisit our urban design in such a way we don’t have to cut the trees,” said Housing and Urban Affairs Secretary Durga Shanker Mishra
Well, actually, the government didn’t have much choice. Because 2 petitions had already been filed in the High Court – and both petitions won. This meant that the government was ordered to stop cutting trees!
The High Court said it would “not allow Delhi to die at the cost of the redevelopment projects”.
It’s viewed as a great victory for the people of Delhi, India against the authorities.
So, activists won’t stop yet. They say the city needs more greenery and less pollution. And that will be possible only when the city’s residents become more aware and active – if not, it will become too easy for authorities to keep cutting trees in the guise of various projects.
So activists and environmentalists are now focused on educating the population, especially children, about the importance of trees and how cutting them would adversely affect pollution and the environment. People power is needed – and will win again, making sure the government does its job of protecting people from pollution.
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Could (or has) something like this happened in your city? Let me know in the comments below.
Warm regards,
P.S. Don’t forget to download your free green living handbook “Live Well, Live Green” here.
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