Planting for Penitence: A Political Ecology and Legal Geography Perspective on Court-Ordered Plantations in the Central Ridge, New Delhi

Keywords: tree planting, Delhi, political ecology, legal geography
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

The Delhi Ridge is the northernmost extension of the rocky Aravalli range, suited to support an open-canopied thorn forest. It is divided into four sections. The Central Ridge Forest, touching the President’s Estate, is least accessible to the public. Since 2019, the Delhi High Court has been directing offenders to plant trees in the Central Ridge, part of which has been renamed “Insaaf Bagh” (Garden of Justice). In this paper I investigate discourses underlying the court-orders (through content analysis of court judgements and orders), identify processes through which they are actualized (drawing from my participatory observations as a Delhi Forest Department employee), and their ecological implications (using vegetation sampling).

Underlying the court’s brand of justice is the assumption that plantation drives are intrinsic “goods” which can compensate for “bads” (crimes). The orders emphasize planting dense-canopied trees, and Insaaf Bagh is now covered with saplings from four broad-leaved species, unlikely to survive without watering. The orders also attempt to appropriate forest spaces for elite use, restyling Central Ridge as a garden, installing cycling tracks, etc.

Insaaf Bagh is a continuation of two legacies. First, the colonial legacy of exclusionary plantation dating back to the construction of New Delhi in the 1910s, when the Central Ridge was created by razing twenty-five villages, fencing, and initiating greening efforts. Second, the post-Emergency legacy of judicial adventurism, wherein courts attempted to monopolize forest governance, compromising rights of the poor. These traditions have culminated into an exclusionary, ecologically unsound model of justice which must be challenged.