The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Sunday said the Delhi Government has brought the national capital’s green cover to a historic high in the last 10 years and the city’s green cover is now about 24 per cent.

Addressing a press conference here today, AAP chief spokesperson Priyanka Kakkar said that in the last four years, two crore saplings have been planted in Delhi.

“In the last 10 years, the Kejriwal government has increased Delhi’s green cover to over 23 per cent by planting crores of trees,” Kakkar said.

“As many as 17 city forests exist in Delhi and the Aam Aadmi Party government is creating 6 more forests in Delhi. City forests are being developed near the metro station in Shastri Park, near ITO Chungi Part 2, in Mukhmelpur, Shikarpur, Aya Nagar and in Jaunapur,” she said.

Kakkar said that on one hand, there is the Aam Aadmi Party government, which is planting trees, is constantly trying to make Delhi pollution free and on the other hand, “there is the L-G of Delhi who secretly goes to an eco-sensitive zone and orders tree felling in contempt of the Supreme Court.”

“An order of the Supreme Court is required to cut even a single tree there. Without the order of the Supreme Court, cutting even a single tree in that eco-sensitive zone, in the ridge area of Satbari is not allowed,” she said.

Highlighting the importance of trees in bringing down pollution, the AAP chief spokesperson said ‘Trees and Environment’ is a write-up on the Union government website and it is written in it that a mature tree absorbs 22 kg of carbon dioxide in a year and trees also release oxygen.

“A mature tree is sufficient for the annual oxygen requirement of two people. Trees are so important. It is also written in it that trees not only clean the air, they also clean the land below and the surrounding groundwater. The roots of the trees help to filter the rainwater and absorb whatever chemical is present in the surrounding soil,” she said.

“In today’s time, felling even a single tree in Delhi is an atrocity against the people of Delhi, LG is the killer of trees. On February 3, the LG went to Satbari and ordered the felling of 1100 trees at a place where not even a single tree can be felled without the permission of the Supreme Court,” Kakkar said.

“For the benefit of which capitalist friend did the LG himself go and give these directions? Not only this, when this matter came before the Supreme Court, they (the bench) reprimanded L-G, saying that you have started considering yourself as the court. The L-G misled the Supreme Court on three dates, the BJP misled the people of Delhi by saying that the Aam Aadmi Party had given permission for this. Which is not possible because only the Supreme Court can give permission for this,” she said.

The AAP chief spokesperson said in the last 10 years, the Aam Aadmi Party government has taken many long-term and short-term steps to control pollution in Delhi.

“In long-term steps, there are about 1700 industries in Delhi today and all of them have been converted to run on PNG fuel. Delhi has a very progressive electric vehicle policy under which the highest number of electric vehicles in the country have been purchased in Delhi.”

“The Aam Aadmi Party government here has built 1800 charging stations so far and subsidy is available on purchase of electric vehicles. In Delhi, about 1800 public transport buses have now been converted to electric, which has controlled pollution,” she said.