In January 2022, Naveen Solanki, a native of Shahabad Mohammadpur, an urban village situated in Delhi's southwest district, noticed the felling of trees in a nearby "forest" in Dwarka Sector 21. 

He quickly contacted the forest department. Soon, two-three officials were sent, who found that 17 trees had been cut but didn't carry out a proper survey to assess the situation. The Deputy Conservator of Forests (West Forest Division) consequently registered a verbal complaint at the time.

Through the internet, Solanki found out that the trees were being cut for a project that aimed to dissolve two small neighbouring rail stations -- Bijwasan and Shahabad Mohammadpur -- to create one big rail terminal. The project encompassing 110.07 hectares of land also included other mixed-use (residential and commercial) construction plans. 

As per Solanki, 48.5 hectares (or 120 acres) of the total land area was covered by "forest" hosting diverse species including 65 bird types, 50 Nilgai, wild rabbits, jungle cats, and Indian lizards.

According to the notices sent to the Rail Development Authority (RLDA), 131 more fully-grown trees of “different species” were cut in March in violation of the Delhi Preservation of Tree Act, 1994. All this was happening while the hearings were ongoing in the forest department. 

Despite many notices, the Joint General Manager of the RLDA, which was behind the project, kept on delaying his attendance. Finally, officials from RLDA attended the hearing in June after more notices were sent and the survey finding of the loss of 990 trees over an area of 4.09 Ha was established and a fine of Rs 5.93 crore was imposed. 

In the meantime, the forest department was able to restore 207 logs, including 42 Sheesham trees, five Desi Kikkkar, and five Vilayti Kikkar.

Later, in November 2023, a petition was filed in the National Green Tribunal by RM Asif, who was not part of the Save Dwarka Forest collective led by Solanki. Asif claimed that the project was coming up on "forest" land and therefore, it should be approved by the central government under the Forest Conservation Act. 

The court dismissed the plea stating that the land was under railways authority and was not recorded as forest as per any municipal/forest record. 

The court added that it wasn't a deemed forest as Asif had claimed 1100 trees were threatened, which would have brought the number of trees per acre to about 35, much less than the 100-tree limit required for acquiring the 'deemed forest' status.

In any case, at that time the deemed forest category was removed from the purview of the Forest Conservation Act after the 2023 amendment, which the court also mentioned. 

Interestingly, only six days later in its interim order on 19 February 2024, the Supreme Court reversed the decision. Solanki claimed that the actual number of trees per acre was more than 200 as per a GPS survey report (findings said that 525 trees existed in 2.5 acres of area.) that was conducted independently on 6th June, which proved that the land could be a "deemed forest." 

During the hearings, even the forest department submitted that the possibility of its status as deemed forest” could not be ruled out. 

However, after the February 2024 NGT  order, the trees felling began at a more rapid scale. At the same time, the collective has also intensified its protest by running online petitions and Twitter campaigns. 

Many environmentalists, who have joined the movement, claim that the Dwarka Sector 21 forest absorbs the heavy emissions caused by the nearby IGI airport. They believe cutting off forests will only create more heatwaves and pollution in the city.

Additionally, as per Solanki, the project’s MOU constructions are supposed to come up on an area that includes a government girl school, a DDA water body, and the extension of the Shahabad Mohammadpur village where underprivileged were settled in JJ colonies in the 1950s and 1960s. 

While that part of the project might take some years to build, the region, which was already enclosed on three sides by the airport, would become completely closed due to the railway terminal project. 

The forest also has some patches that act as grazing land for the cows, goats, and other cattle reared by the residents of the JJ colony. They also fear the environmental degradation followed by the construction. 

According to records, the "forest" land was initially owned by the Delhi Development Authority, which was handed over to the Ministry of Railways for redevelopment of the Bijwasan terminal on a perpetual lease basis in 2008. While the project was initially awarded to the Indian Railway Stations Development Corporation (IRSDC) in 2016, the government body was shut down in 2021, following which the project is being executed by the RLDA. It's going to be now built in a public-private partnership (PPP).