QR tags removed from 100 trees in Lodhi gardens after forest department notice

PTI, Sep 1, 2019, 11:37 AM IST

New Delhi: Quick response tags have been removed from around 100 trees in Lodhi Gardens in New Delhi after the forest department issued a direction to the city Municipal Council, an official said.

A forest department team conducted an inspection of trees on Saturday and found that QR tags, which caused extensive damage to the trunk of the trees, had been removed, the official said.

In December last year, the NDMC had fixed QR codes to provide visitors information regarding the tree’s age, lifespan, botanical name, latitude, longitude, common name, girth and canopy size etc.

QR tags violated the National Green Tribunal order dated April 23, 2013 that says nothing can be fixed on trees, Verhaen Khanna from the New Delhi Nature Society, the NGO that raised the issue with the forest department, said.

“A portion of the trunk was cut out to fix these QR tags measuring 10 cm x 10 cm and up to 2.5 cm deep. It led to infection and caused penetrative damage to the trees,” he said. After several hearings, a notice was issued to the NDMC last week to remove the QR tags.

As per the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act, a fine of Rs 10,000 per tree can be imposed on the NDMC but no decision has been taken on this yet, he said. Khanna said some medicine has been applied on trees to reverse the damage.

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