Fallen Tree Praying for Life – Dwarka

New Delhi (Nidhi Gupta) : In today’s times when we all are gasping for oxygen, buying oxygen-filled cylinders to save lives of our dear ones; the actual and natural suppliers of Oxygen are neglected at large. In December’20, a huge tree grown on pavement at Janki Chowk near Sector 23 Police station Dwarka, New Delhi fell due to storm. It was partially uprooted and covered the major part of the road.

Since it was causing obstruction in traffic movement, the horticulture department chopped off all the branches of this big Ficus tree and left the trunk with base of heavy branches and few leaves. As the Nature has it’s own way to grow, fresh leaves and tender branches emerged as new life.

This was noticed and reported by a member of Kalpvriksha NGO. In January’21, the matter was taken up by Dwarka wing member Mrs. Nidhi Gupta who visited the site along with Horticulture department officials.

After the joint visit, it was found that with some effort and official approval, tree can be erected. The mail communication was sent to the Director- Horticulture for further action.

It was found that the tree had life with 1/3rd roots intact in ground and supported by big stone. The tree had fallen over another tree affecting it’s growth and damaging stem due to heavy weight. It was decided that with the help of JCB, it can be re-erected. However, the reluctant attitude from horticulture team, in spite of rigorous follow up, has left the trees on their own fate.

This is another example of weakened roots since tree was grown on the pavement, with almost choking tiles around, two sewer pipelines running underneath.

Mrs. Nidhi also proposed to transplant this big tree to some nearby location to make it survive effectively. The matter required approval from the forest department and interest was seemingly lacking for inter-department approval.

After almost six months, the issue was re-initiated by Mr. Anil Parashar who is also part of Kalpvriksha family and member of many eminent forums in Dwarka. In the mean time, more new shoots have emerged from the fallen tree. But the other tree remained stunted in growth due to heavy weight of affected one.
With support from all of you, we can pressurize Horticulture department to relocate this big tree and give it new chance of survival with full growth.