As the monsoon approaches, the civic body’s plans to green the city gets grander. As an initiative to plant 10 lakh saplings over the next few months is being launched on Sunday, a look at the ones planted in the past indicates that many will wither away and die.
The survival rate of saplings planted by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is around 50%, claimed an official of the civic body’s Forest Cell. The rest succumb to drought, lack of rain and poor maintenance.
In comparison, the Karnataka Forest Department, which takes the responsibility of around 50,000 saplings in Bengaluru district annually, boasts of a survival rate greater than 95%.
In perspective, the BBMP ends up effectively adding 50,000 saplings (with a similar number dying) annually to the city’s landscape while forest officials conservatively plant around 48,000 saplings successfully. Compounding this is the fact that the BBMP ends up paying ₹492 per sapling while the Forest Department allots around ₹300.
