A fierce storm on May 2, 2025, uprooted between 100 and 200 trees across Delhi, exposing the city’s chronic neglect of its urban greenery.
Strong winds and heavy rain triggered 53 complaints to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), 24 to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and over 200 to the Public Works Department (PWD), with reports still pouring in from areas like Vasant Kunj, Defence Colony, and RK Puram. Environmentalists, pointing to rampant concretisation of tree bases, call this an “ecocide” fueled by civic apathy and defiance of a 2013 National Green Tribunal (NGT) order mandating a one-meter concrete-free radius around trees. For Delhi’s 33 million residents, the loss is personal. Fallen trees, like those crushing cars in Vasant Kunj or blocking Panchsheel Enclave roads, disrupt lives and underscore a deeper crisis. “Cement chokes roots, blocking water and air,” said Verhaen Khanna, a local environmentalist. “During monsoons, trees can’t expand, roots weaken, and they collapse.”
The NGT’s 2013 directive, reinforced by Delhi High Court rulings, remains a paper tiger. A 2015 forest department notice threatened ₹10,000 fines per tree for concretisation, yet 70% of Vasant Vihar’s 5,000 street trees were found cemented in a 2015-16 census. Bhavreen Kandhari, a green activist, blames construction-driven soil compaction and root damage, noting, “Years of negligence have weakened anchorage.” She warns that without integrating tree health into urban planning, Delhi’s 1.9 million trees—already down from 2.5 million in 2015—face further decimation. Civic bodies’ response is lackluster. MCD’s four tree ambulances, expanded to 12 by 2024, performed 353 surgeries last year, but Khanna argues authorities prioritize clearing debris over saving trees. A 2022 storm saw 530 trees fall, with MCD and NDMC struggling with manpower shortages, a pattern repeated in 2025.
Delhi’s air, with an AQI of 352 in April 2025, desperately needs its trees, which absorb 0.24 million tonnes of CO2 annually. Yet, concretisation—often reimposed after temporary de-choking for “pavement economics”—persists. The DEVI scheme’s 76 electric buses, launched May 2, 2025, aim to cut emissions, but without healthier trees, urban sustainability falters. For residents like Sunita in Mayur Vihar, dodging fallen branches, or students in Jangpura navigating blocked roads, the storm is a wake-up call: Delhi must enforce NGT mandates, fund arborists, and rethink urban planning to save its green lungs.
