“The attack has left me traumatised and I have stopped going outside,” said Naveen Solanki. “I don’t know where the next threat will come from.”

Solanki is a 23-year old environmental activist from the Shahbad Mohammadpur village in Delhi’s Dwarka neighbourhood. On the afternoon of February 8, he alleges, a tractor belonging to another resident of the village, attempted to run him over. This was after Solanki had noticed the tractor dumping construction and demolition waste in the Dwarka forest earlier in the afternoon.

The forest, spanning 120 acres or around 70 football fields, is natural, self-grown and unplanned, having proliferated since 2008.

Solanki told Scroll that when he saw the waste being dumped in the forest, he immediately alerted the police and stopped the tractor from proceeding. When he saw the vehicle heading towards him, he tried to jump out of the way. But the vehicle ended up running over one of his feet.

Despite a formal police complaint containing photos of the attacker and his tractor, the authorities have refused to register a first information report till now.

Solanki says he has been in crosshairs of the alleged attacker since 2022 when he began leading efforts to protect the forest from deforestation by state agencies and waste dumping by private entities. A complaint by him led to the Rail Land Development Authority – which owns the land on which the forest has come up – being fined almost Rs 6 crore in 2022 for illegally felling trees in the area.

Solanki escalated his conservation efforts to the Supreme Court in 2024 and secured a stay in September on all tree-felling and construction activities in the forest. However, the court on March 3 clarified that the stay applied to only 30 acres – or about 25% – of the forest.

Solanki’s legal battle highlights the challenges in protecting unplanned urban forests, areas often overlooked in city development plans and outside traditional forest classifications. His struggle also underscores the risks environmental defenders face in India, even in the Capital.

An unplanned forest

The Dwarka Forest is tucked away behind the bustling T3 terminal of Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport.

It is part of approximately 272 acres of land originally belonging to Shahbad Mohammadpur and Bharthal villages, acquired by the Delhi Development Authority in the 1960s and transferred to the Rail Land Development Authority in the 2000s for railway expansion.

After it was acquired by the Delhi Development Authority, the land lay undeveloped. A natural forest grew on it. With thousands of trees, the stretch of land is now a biodiversity hotspot. Because it is close to the Sahibi river, it attracts many migratory birds and lies directly on the migratory route of birds heading to the Great Najafgarh Lake.

The forest also functions as a green lung for a highly polluted city, Solanki told Scroll. He said it absorbs vehicular emissions that are the number one source of Delhi’s pollution. The forest also protects Dwarka residents from harmful jet fumes from the airport.

Legal struggle

In 2022, the Rail Land Development Authority began redeveloping the Bijwasan Railway Terminal on forest land. It started to fell trees without the permission of the forest department. Witnessing this destruction, Solanki lodged a complaint with the Delhi Forest Department in January 2022.

An investigation by the forest department found that nearly a thousand trees had been illegally felled. In June 2022, the department fined the Rail Land Development Authority nearly Rs 6 crore. The authority was also ordered to “deconcretise” trees affected by concrete spillage from a ready-mix concrete machine and shift the machine.

However, the fine did not halt the project. The railway authority allegedly continued to cut trees, prompting further complaints from Solanki to the forest department. However, he received no response.

In 2023, RM Asif, a lawyer living in Delhi’s Govindpuri neighbourhood and previously not known to be part of the Dwarka forest conservation efforts, filed an application with the National Green Tribunal, a statutory body set up to deal with environmental disputes. He challenged the railway authority’s invitation for project plans and bids for about 30 acres of land in the forest as part of the Bijwasan project.

The tribunal dismissed Asif’s application on February 13, 2024. Its reasoning was based on an affidavit from Delhi’s Deputy Conservator of Forest (West division) stating that the land was not a notified forest. The tribunal reasoned that the Forest Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2023 had excluded from protection the concept of “deemed forests” – that is, land that may not be officially classified as "forest" in government records but possesses forest-like characteristics and ecological value.

Effectively, the National Green Tribunal cleared the path for the project, declaring the forest unprotected.

Solanki, along with Delhi-based animal rights activist and Ajay Joshi, a member of the Save Dwarka Forest campaign, filed an appeal against the tribunal’s order before the Supreme Court. Their legal team, led by Senior Advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, argued that the Dwarka Forest qualified as a “deemed forest” under the principles established in a 1996 Supreme Court judgement.

The judgement had broadened the definition of “forest” under the Forest (Conservation) Act to include areas resembling forests, regardless of their official status.

The legal team presented a 1997 affidavit by the Delhi Conservator of Forests, which set density-based criteria for deemed forests. A survey showed Dwarka Forest exceeded this criteria. They argued that the national green tribunal erred in dismissing this evidence and misinterpreted the Forest (Conservation) Act and its amendments.

They also emphasised the environmental importance of Dwarka forest, framing it as an issue of environmental justice and a fundamental right to clean air.

On the very first hearing of the appeal on September 17, 2024, the Supreme Court granted an interim stay on all construction and tree felling on the disputed land. Earlier this month, however, the court clarified that the stay was limited to the 30 acres of forest land that was the subject of the National Green Tribunal’s order.

Save Dwarka Forest movement

The struggle to save the Dwarka forest is fuelled by “Save Dwarka Forest”: a grassroots campaign driven by Solanki, Joshi and writer and visual artist Tannuja Chauhan. They have been using social media, public outreach and public protests to advocate for the forest to be recognised and protected.

The Save Dwarka Forest movement calls for five key actions: forest protection under the “deemed forest” category; project relocation; forest restoration; a wildlife survey in the forest; and transparent conduct from authorities.

However, this fight for environmental justice has come at a personal cost for Solanki.

He alleges that ever since he approached the Supreme Court last year, there have been attempts to silence him. Initially, he claims, efforts were made to buy his silence.

Solanki alleged that in spite of the stay by the Supreme Court in September, the dumping of construction and demolition waste in the forest had continued unabated. This pointed to possible corruption and influence of vested interests, he claims.

Despite the attack, Solanki remains resolute in his fight to protect the forest.

“I have made a lot of enemies,” he said. “But I am not backing out. As long as I’m alive, I will put in every effort to save the forest.”

However, he admits that since the attack, he has stopped going to the forest to patrol illegal tree cutting and waste dumping.