Between 2013 and 2021, Delhi’s green cover increased from 20% to 23.06%, which is 3% more than the standard set for urban areas by the Forest Survey of India, the Delhi government said on Friday.
Based on an audit conducted by the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, tree plantation in Delhi for the years 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19, also revealed that the survival rate of the saplings planted during the government’s plantation drive was between 75-80%. Delhi has already exceeded its goal of planting 31 lakh saplings in 2021-22, by planting over 32 lakh saplings so far.
Environment minister Gopal Rai while presenting the statistics said that the plantation drive was one of the steps being taken by the government to fight pollution in the city. He added that the government was working over a range of solutions, from emergency measures to long-term solutions, such as tree plantation, promotion of electric vehicles and converting all the fossil fuel based industries in Delhi to gas.
“Over the past five years through the large-scale tree-planting campaign, we have not only met the objective but exceeded it. The goal for In 2016-17 was 10 lakh saplings, but we ended up planting 24 lakh saplings. In 2017-18 and 18-19 and we planted nineteen lakh saplings against the goal of ten lakh saplings and in 2019-20, a target of ten lakh saplings was set, and we planted 28 lakh saplings,” Mr. Rai said.
Mr. Rai stressed the importance of further increasing the green cover to combat pollution, given Delhi’s location where pollution, particularly during the winter season, was a recurring problem.
“To avoid this crisis, we must increase our green cover even more. We have made another decision – we will now begin soil testing for the plantation drive that will take place next year, to determine the quality of the soil in which area and what types of plants can thrive in that soil,” the minister said. He further added that the government would like to see the survival rate of the saplings planted increase further.
