Six thousand trees or two rail tracks? A tough choice for the choking Delhi'ite, but not for the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which is out to meet deadlines. Announcing "compensatory plantation" for felling trees in its wake has not helped the DMRC in obtaining permisssion to clear a particularly dense stretch of forest in east Delhi, between Shahdara and Partap Nagar, to make way for the Shahdara--Tis Hazari route.