India, Sept. 19 -- New Delhi

Over 5,100 trees have been chopped in Delhi, besides over a 1,000 in other areas, for the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway project, the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) said in its response to a Right To Information (RTI) query. But, it failed to provide any detail on afforestry compensation or information on how many trees were replanted and survived.

According to the reply, 5,104 trees were felled between Akshardham and the Delhi-Uttar Pradesh border. An additional 1,055 trees were axed on the stretch from Delhi-UP border to the Eastern Peripheral Expressway (EPE) junction, taking the total number of trees cut within a 31-kilometre span to 6,159.

"No trees were transplanted under the jurisdiction of t...