How Not to Restore a Forest: Delhi Central Ridge

Source: Original editorial ↗ The Indian Express

The Lift Line

“This is not ‘restoration’: the Ridge is being dismantled by a deadly cocktail of ignorance and ineptitude.”

Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam

Pradip Krishen, an environmentalist and the author of Trees of Delhi, writes in The Indian Express of 3 October 2026 about the Forest Department’s drive to clear the invasive vilayati keekar (Prosopis juliflora) from Delhi’s Central Ridge. For background, the Supreme Court allowed the removal on 17 September 2026. The piece separates ecological restoration from plantation forestry, a distinction that recurs in questions on afforestation targets, compensatory afforestation and invasive species.

GS Paper 3: Conservation, environmental degradation, pollution. GS Paper 1: Physical geography (the Aravalli range); urbanisation and its problems.

Background and Context

The Delhi Ridge. The Ridge is the northernmost extension of the Aravalli range. Delhi’s Forest Department lists it in four parts:

Part	Area
Southern Ridge	about 6,200 ha
Central Ridge	about 864 ha
South-Central Ridge (Mehrauli)	about 626 ha
Northern Ridge	about 87 ha
Total	about 7,777 ha

A further 7 ha at Nanakpura was notified as part of the Central Ridge in 1996, on the Supreme Court’s directions in M.C. Mehta v Union of India.

Legal status, step by step (background).

Date	Step
24 May 1994	Preliminary notification under Section 4 of the Indian Forest Act, 1927 proposes 7,777 ha of the Ridge as reserved forest
May 2026	673.32 ha of the Central Ridge declared a reserved forest under Section 20, the final notification
September 2026	The Supreme Court (Chief Justice Surya Kant, Justices Joymalya Bagchi and V. Mohana) allows removal of about 13,161 invasive trees from 70 ha of the Central Ridge under the Delhi Eco-restoration Plan, 2026-30, prepared by the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun, with the Ridge Management Board supervising

What the order covers. The Supreme Court’s permission is for about 13,161 trees on 70 ha; the 200 ha the writer describes is the clearing of the past three months, which the order does not itself describe.

The invader. Prosopis juliflora is native to Central and South America. The writer traces its spread on the Ridge to plantings in the 1920s by William Mustoe, after other planted trees died when irrigation was withdrawn. It thrives on thin, dry, rocky soil and now dominates the Ridge.

The Analysis

1. Restoration has become clearing. In three months, the writer says, bulldozers cleared 200 hectares, ploughing up the soil and removing the woody shrubs and lianas that are the Ridge’s natural flora.

2. The wrong trees, too close. Trees whose canopies will span 12 metres or more are planted 1.2 metres apart; riverbank species such as jamun and arjun go in at 2,500 a hectare, “more crowded together than trees in a rainforest”. The writer calls it the mistake of a century ago repeated.

3. Killing the soil. Tenders required chemical anti-termite treatment. Termites are beneficial in dry forests, and the chemicals kill microorganisms, fungi and insects; one of them, the writer says, is banned in India. The tender was withdrawn after protest, but “pools of dead soil” remain.

4. Parkification. One-acre ornamental “vans”, plans for Miyawaki forests, gaushalas, a bonsai park and an interpretation centre would turn a semi-wild forest into “a third-rate municipal park”.

5. Costs for the city. Hundreds of hectares of loosened soil will add dust to Delhi’s winter air, and lakhs of unsuitable trees will need water the city lacks; if anaerobically treated sewage is used, the writer says, it will carry excess nitrates and pesticide residues. The same pattern, the writer warns, is under way across Delhi’s Ridge forests and Biodiversity Parks.

Data and Institutions Vault

Prelims-grade facts:

The Ridge and the law:

• Delhi Ridge: northern end of the Aravalli range; about 7,777 ha in four parts; Southern Ridge the largest (about 6,200 ha).
• Section 4, Indian Forest Act, 1927: preliminary notification (Ridge: 24 May 1994, 7,777 ha); Section 20: final reserved forest notification.
• As of 2026, 673.32 ha of the Central Ridge is a reserved forest (announced 9 May 2026).
• Background ruling, Supreme Court, 17 September 2026: removal of about 13,161 invasive trees from 70 ha allowed under the FRI’s Delhi Eco-restoration Plan, 2026-30.

Species and methods:

• Vilayati keekar = Prosopis juliflora, native to Central and South America; invasive in India’s dry zones.
• Miyawaki method: dense, multi-layered planting of native species, named after Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki.

⚠️ Watch the trap: A Section 4 notification under the Indian Forest Act only declares the intention to constitute a reserved forest; the forest is legally constituted only by the Section 20 notification after rights are settled. Much of the Ridge sat at Section 4 for over three decades.

The Debate

For the writer’s view. A dry forest is shrubs, lianas, grasses and living soil as much as trees; removing them all to kill one invader destroys what restoration should return.

The other side. Prosopis does suppress native growth, the Supreme Court has allowed its removal from 70 ha under a scientific plan, and native species are being planted.

The balanced verdict. Remove the invader in phases, keep native cover and soil, plant locally adapted species at natural densities, and let independent ecologists monitor results.

How to Think About This

Count the ecosystem, not the saplings. Many forestry programmes report trees planted or area covered. A strong answer asks what the reference ecosystem is and whether its structure, species and soil are coming back.

Diagram-in-Words

Takeaway Box

• Thesis: the Central Ridge is being dismantled in the name of restoration.
• Writer’s figures: 200 ha cleared in three months; trees 1.2 m apart; 2,500 a hectare.
• Law: Section 4 (1994) to Section 20 (673.32 ha, May 2026); Supreme Court order of 17 September 2026.
• Ask: phased removal, native cover kept, no soil poisons.

Sources: The Indian Express, Delhi Forest Department, recorded forest, Outlook on the Supreme Court order, Swarajya on the reserved forest notification

Source: How Not to Restore a Forest: Delhi Central Ridge — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Editorial Analysis

Key Arguments at a Glance

Pradip Krishen argues that the drive to remove the invasive vilayati keekar from Delhi’s Central Ridge has become a dismantling of the forest: bulldozing native scrub, killing the soil with chemicals and planting the wrong trees too densely, when the invader could be removed slowly and in phases.

✓ Supporting

• In three months bulldozers have cleared 200 hectares of the Central Ridge, ploughing the soil and sweeping away the woody shrubs and lianas that are its natural flora, under a plan written by the Forest Research Institute, the writer says.
• Trees whose canopies will span 12 metres or more are being planted 1.2 metres apart, and water-hungry riverbank species such as jamun and arjun are going in at 2,500 a hectare, denser than a rainforest.
• Tenders required toxic anti-termite treatment, one chemical of which is banned in India; termites are beneficial in dry forests, and the chemicals kill the living soil. The tender was withdrawn after a public outcry, but pools of dead soil remain.
• Ornamental “vans”, plans for Miyawaki forests, gaushalas and a bonsai park point to the “parkification” of the Ridge, while loosened soil will add dust to Delhi’s winter air and the new plantations will need water the city does not have.

⚠ Counter

The case for the drive, not presented by the writer: vilayati keekar suppresses native vegetation and dominates the Ridge, the Supreme Court allowed the removal of about 13,161 invasive trees from 70 ha on 17 September 2026 under a plan by the Forest Research Institute and the supervision of the Ridge Management Board, and native species such as neem, peepal and jamun are being planted in its place.

→ Way Forward

The writer wants the invader removed slowly, in phases, without destroying everything else, and the Ridge kept from becoming a municipal park. Ujiyari’s synthesis: restore to the reference ecosystem (dry thorn forest and scrub), retain native shrubs and soil, remove Prosopis by cutting and girdling in phases, plant at natural densities, ban soil poisons, and monitor survival and biodiversity publicly.