New Delhi, Jan. 15 -- For years, compensatory plantation has been the moral fig leaf of Delhi's infrastructure expansion - trees felled for highways and projects are promised back, but the ground tells a different story. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI), in a meeting with Delhi government officials last week, flagged large-scale gaps in compensatory afforestation for two major projects, the Urban Extension Road-2 (UER-2) and the Dwarka Expressway.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) was tasked with planting 64,080 trees for UER-2 and 153,990 for the Dwarka Expressway, for which the NHAI deposited Rs.55.1 crore and Rs.87.77 crore respectively with the agency, officials aware of the matter said.

According to a status repo...