NEW DELHI: Delhi’s forest department is planning to build a “wall” of trees that, it claims, will guard against dust and pollution from neighbouring states. Officials said they were planning to conduct this year’s monsoon plantation in a way that in a few years when the saplings grow into trees, they would act like a natural wall.
Recently, Union and state development agencies in the capital had informed the lieutenant governor that they would plant about 28 lakh saplings of native trees. The figure has now been raised to over 32 lakh. These will encircle the borders to shield the city from frequent dusty winds coming from Rajasthan. A Delhi forest department official told TOI that “this time, our focus will be on the outskirts like Asola, Tughlakabad, Ayanagar, Narela, Sawda Ghevra and Yamuna floodplain. We will plant both native shrubs and saplings and our intention is also to replenish the ridge so that it acts as a barrier”.
A senior official of the Union environment ministry, meanwhile, told PTI-Bhasha that various agencies of the Union and Delhi governments had already begun the work on the project. “The natural barrier is to come up all along Delhi border with Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, while also encompassing the Aravali and the Yamuna forests areas,” he said, adding that the scheme has two objectives — absorption of particulate matter by trees and shielding Delhi from dust storms.
Pilkhan, goolar, mango, mahua and other native tress have been chosen for this scheme. Peepul, neem, amla (Indian gooseberry), jamun, amaltas, bahera and a few other species will also be planted. The official said the “minute dust particles and other pollutants of air easily get deposited on the leaves of evergreen trees and are subsequently washed down to the ground”.
The forest department under the Delhi government said it had set an “ambitious” target, which it aimed to complete within this year, adding that the scheme had been formally launched on July 7. Authorities that will implement the scheme in their respective areas in the national capital include the Delhi Development Authority, the Central Public Works Department, DMRC, the Northern Railway, the Public Works Department of the Delhi government, besides the forest department and various municipal councils and corporations of Delhi.
The maximum number of tress will be planted by DDA (10 lakh), to be followed by the forest department (4.22 lakh), the three municipal corporations (4 lakh), NDMC (3 lakh) and CPWD (35,000). After planting the saplings, all these agencies will nurture them for two years after which an independent agency will conduct a “survival audit” of the trees to examine their survival rate and take further remedial action. The survival audit has been proposed to be conducted from March 2019 by Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute, which will submit its report by March 2020.
TOI had recently reported how Delhi’s forest cover has increased by 0.3%, or 3.6 sqkm, compared to the assessments conducted in 2015, according to the State of the Forest Report 2017. But there is little to cheer about as the increase is only in the open and scrub forest categories whereas both very dense and moderately dense forests have recorded a decline.