Politicians and bureaucrats gathered in Delhi’s Southern Ridge on June 5, World Environment Day, to cut ribbons and inaugurate 18 newly minted "Namo Oxygen Parks." Spanning 185 acres and promised to be part of a massive 70-lakh tree-planting drive this year, the event was framed by the government as an ecological triumph.
However, the sprawling green belt is not a visionary gift from the state; it is an ordered penance.
The origin of these parks traces back to an act of environmental vandalism. In 2024, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) illegally axed over 1,100 mature trees in the Southern Ridge, a protected reserve forest often called the ‘lungs of the capital’.
The clearing was done to widen an approach road leading to the Central Armed Police Forces Institute of Medical Sciences (CAPFIMS). The tree-felling violated statutory protections, prompting a fierce judicial backlash in the landmark contempt case, Bindu Kapurea vs Subhashish Panda.
Under pressure from the Supreme Court, the DDA was forced into a multi-crore ecological remediation. According to the DDA’s latest internal status reports, the path to compliance was marred by institutional failure.
In this image posted on June 5, 2026, Union Environment Minister Bhupender Yadav, Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, Union Minister of State Kirti Vardhan Singh, Delhi Minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa and BJP MP Ramvir Singh Bidhuri during the launch of a plantation drive and Namo Oxygen Parks on the occasion of 'World Environment Day', in New Delhi. (PTI)
Initially, the DDA offered 185 acres across three pockets in Rohini. However, a court-appointed committee of experts, comprising naturalists and biologists, inspected the sites and flatly rejected them.
One pocket was drowned in stagnant, toxic sewage water, while the others were literal dumping grounds, packed with metres of concrete and plastic construction waste disguised as soil.
"If land filled with plastic waste, industrial debris, and sewage water was initially offered, the issue is bigger than tree planting," said Bhavreen Kandhari, a Delhi-based environmentalist who was among the first to highlight the tree felling on the ridge.
"It raises questions about whether environmental compliance was being approached as ecological restoration or merely as a box-ticking exercise."
It was only after being reprimanded that the DDA collaborated with the forest department to locate 18 substitute land parcels across Delhi, transferring Rs 46.13 crore to the state government for a seven-year maintenance cycle.
So, when Union ministers Bhupender Yadav and Kirti Vardhan Singh stood alongside Delhi chief minister Rekha Gupta to claim credit for the "Namo Oxygen Parks," environmental advocates watched with deep irony.
"Are we celebrating the creation of new ecological wealth, or celebrating compliance with a legal requirement?" asked Kandhari, challenging the political rebranding. "Accountability requires not just identifying land on paper, but ensuring that the land can genuinely compensate for the ecological loss that occurred."
While politicians tout the immediate production of oxygen, field biologists warn that urban ecosystems cannot be replaced overnight. Saplings of native species like peepal, banyan, neem, and mango will take two to five years just to deliver basic ecological benefits.
Kandhari argued that a sapling is a fundamentally unequal replacement for a mature tree, which represents decades of accumulated value in canopy cover, carbon storage, and cooling.
"If a 40-year-old fixed deposit is withdrawn, opening a new savings account is not an equivalent replacement on Day One," she said. "When governments announce targets like 70 lakh saplings, the real questions are: What will be the survival rate after five years? How much canopy cover will actually be created? And how does that compare with the ecological services lost?"
The legal fallout continues. To fund the restoration, the court has initiated plans to levy a one-time construction tax on affluent property owners benefiting from the CAPFIMS road, while internal inquiries have seen minor fines and censures enforced against erring DDA officials.
For Delhi, a city perpetually choking on hazardous air, any green cover is welcome. But as a precedent, it remains a troubling trend. Until accountability shifts, the pattern will persist. As Kandhari warns: "Fines make headlines. Jail creates deterrence. Until officials face personal consequences for illegal felling, violations will be treated as an administrative inconvenience rather than a crime against public trust."
