India, June 7 -- Delhi environment minister Manjinder Singh Sirsa on Friday issued a detailed Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) under Section 8 of the Delhi Preservation of Trees Act (DPTA), 1994 - formally defining what qualifies as an 'emergency' in which trees may be pruned or felled without prior permission, and laying out compliance requirements to prevent misuse.

The move, Sirsa said, seeks to enable swift action in genuine cases of public risk while creating a transparent system. However, environmental groups warned that the provision has historically been misused to justify indiscriminate tree removal under vague pretexts.

To be sure, Section 8 of the DPTA mandates no tree shall be felled, removed, or disposed of without prior ...