How Mature Trees Are Transplanted on Highway Projects

Highway widening and new infrastructure often run straight through rows of mature trees. Felling them is quick, but it costs the city decades of shade and canopy, and it increasingly costs the project time in approvals and public objection. Transplantation lets the corridor be cleared while the trees live on nearby. Here is how it works in practice, and what decides whether a moved tree survives.

1. Survey: which trees can be moved

Not every tree is a good candidate. The survey records each tree's species, girth, health and access for machinery. Fig species such as peepal, banyan and pilkhan generally recover well from transplantation. Trees with a deep taproot, or that are already diseased, hollow or leaning, are harder to move successfully. The survey also checks where the trees will go: the receiving site needs space, workable soil and a water source.

2. Timing and preparation

In north India, the monsoon months are usually the best window, because humidity is high and the tree loses less water while its roots recover. Peak summer is the worst. Preparation starts weeks before the move: the tree is watered deeply, the canopy is pruned back so there is less leaf to support, and roots around the future root ball are cut in stages to encourage new feeder roots inside it.

3. Digging, wrapping and lifting

The root ball is sized to the trunk: the bigger the tree, the larger and heavier the ball. It is dug out carefully, wrapped in hessian and secured so the soil stays tight around the roots. Cranes and earth-movers lift the tree onto a trailer. The goal throughout is to keep the root ball intact and the time out of the ground as short as possible, ideally replanting the same day.

Plan transplantation into the construction schedule early. Survey and root preparation take weeks, and the best season may not match your earthwork dates.

4. Replanting

The receiving pit is dug wider than the root ball, with good drainage and improved soil. The tree goes in at the same depth and, where possible, facing the same direction as before. It is then braced with guy wires or stakes so wind cannot rock it while new roots anchor it.

5. Aftercare decides survival

Most of the work happens after the move. For the first year the tree needs regular watering, rooting treatments, protection against fungal infection and pests, and inspections. New leaf growth is the first sign it has taken. Survival is a contractual issue as well as an environmental one: Delhi's 2020 tree transplantation policy, for example, requires that at least 80% of transplanted trees survive.

In practice: NH-307

On the NH-307 widening, Laavin Infrascapes relocated 155 mature roadside trees for an NHAI project, working through the process above alongside the road contractor's schedule.