Civic body to evolve a plan to green city

Not the wild way anymore. The city administrators hope to evolve a plan to green the city.

A pattern for planting saplings considering the specialities of the planting area and tree species available will be evolved in the city. Planting of trees without taking into account the speciality of the area would be counterproductive, said K.J. Sohan, chairman of the Town Planning Standing Committee of the Kochi Corporation.

If trees that would bulk up were planted in the walkways of narrow roads, the stakeholders of the area would destroy the saplings, he said.

Saplings should be selected after considering the speciality of the species and location and the corporation was planning to work with the Social Forestry wing of the Kerala Forest Department for the project, he said.

Three years ago, a few volunteers had counted 6,443 trees in public places of the city in a unique survey held here. The census was carried out by the Rajagiri outREACH of the Rajagiri School of Social Sciences, Kalamassery, for the Kochi Corporation.

Volunteers had listed 2,086 large trees, 1,953 medium-sized ones and 1,761 small trees in the city. They had also spotted 542 saplings in public places of Kochi.

However, Mr. Sohan felt that the census was irrelevant as the tree on the public places accounted for less than 2 per cent of the total trees in the city. Majority of the trees were located on private holdings, he said.

The civic body is also planning to promote individuals to plant suitable trees in public spots. The scheme would be implemented during the next monsoon season, he said.