New Delhi, 20 February (H.S.): India's Supreme Court declared on Friday that the most effective strategy to combat air pollution in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR) entails planting trees on a massive scale.Chief Justice Surya Kant emphasized that improving the Air Quality Index (AQI) demands the extensive plantation of new trees, positioning it as the optimal and permanent solution to this pressing environmental challenge.

The court delivered these observations during a hearing on Friday concerning the unauthorized felling of trees in Delhi's Ridge area.

On May 28, 2025, the Supreme Court had convicted Delhi Development Authority (DDA) officials of contempt for illegally chopping trees in the Southern Ridge to widen roads. A bench presided over by Justice Surya Kant imposed fines of ₹25,000 each on the responsible DDA officials for this contumacious conduct.

The proceedings stemmed from a contempt petition against DDA Vice Chairman Subhashish Panda, who faced scrutiny over large-scale tree removal in the Southern Ridge. On May 16, 2024, the court had expressed outrage at Panda's misleading affidavit—wherein he claimed ignorance of the felling of 642 trees—and issued a contempt notice accordingly.

Justice AS Oka, a member of the earlier bench with over two decades of experience as a constitutional court judge, remarked that he had never encountered such a blatantly deceptive affidavit.

The court noted profound distrust in the DDA, observing that tree felling persisted for 10 days despite explicit judicial prohibition against removing even a single tree without permission. This Friday's hearing reaffirmed the judiciary's commitment to ecological preservation amid Delhi-NCR's worsening pollution woes.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar