Fresh lungs for the city: Four new forests being developed in Delhi for cleaner air
Presently, the national capital has a total of 12 forests. From 22 square kilometre (1.48%) in 1993 to 324 square kilometre (21%) in 2019, the tree cover in the Delhi has been steadily rising despite several infrastructural projects and large scale construction activity taking place, according to government data. The forest department has now planned to develop four more forests for boosting the city’s green cover.
The forest department is developing the new city forests in Dera Mandi, Jaunapur, Aya Nagar and Mamurpur in Narela. Their vegetation will include native trees, shrubs and smaller plants. Cacti gardens, butterfly zones, herbal patches, waterbodies, gazeboes, cycling and walking tracks have also been planned.
A forest department official said that the work for developing the new forests has already started and some of them are expected to be ready by the end of December. He added that the pandemic situation has decelerated their work. He stated that the department is has planned to develop the new city forests on the lines of the ones that have been developed at Garhi Mandu or Taj Enclave in East Delhi, The Times of India reported.
The other forests that were developed recently include Nasirpur (28 hectares), Alipur (19.5 hectares), Mitraon (5.15 hectares), Taj Enclave (56 hectares) and Hauz Rani (28 hectares).
The Delhi forest department has set a target of increasing the city’s green cover to 25 per cent by 2025. “With the creation of city forest, you get more area to plant saplings. This ends in the creation of mini tree zones across the capital with the current rate of plantation, reaching the 25 per cent green cover target is quite possible,” the TOI report quoted the official as saying.
Last week, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai, during a meeting with Union Minister Prakash Javadekar via video conferencing, said that the forest department had planted 10 lakh saplings this monsoon and the have set a target of planting additional 21 lakh saplings by March 2021.
