The Indian Express 24.08.2012
Civic body to begin tree census from next week
After a gap of four years, a census on the number of trees in the
city will be conducted by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s
gardens department starting next week.
According to Superintendent of the gardens department,
Kamalashankar Yadav, the census, to be held across the island city, the
eastern suburbs, and the western suburbs, will now incorporate more
comprehensive details and possibly revised numbers from previous
records.
A senior BMC official said the methodology by which the trees are
surveyed will also be changed. “During the 2008 census, there was a lot
of controversy about the numbers, with allegations that they are
inflated. We are going to revisit the trees, revise the criteria for
calculation and possibly revise the numbers too.”
According to the 2008 census, Mumbai has a total of 1.9 million trees, of which 1.03 million were recorded on private land.
“The 2008 census does not have details on the new and old trees
and other pieces of information useful for keeping track. We are now
going to look at how many trees are taller than 50 ft, what is the age
of every tree and how many medicinal trees are there in the city,” said
Yadav.
The department will also check the condition of trees. “We have
had an increasing number of tree falling incidents in the past couple of
years, so we will check the status of existing trees and how many of
them are in danger of falling,” said Yadav.
The department is also discussing ways to preserve palm trees and
datefruit trees. “These trees are over 20 ft in height and when they
fall, they are uprooted so it is difficult to carry out re-plantation,”
said Yadav. The department is also said to be looking at newer
technologies for solutions to check unlawful felling of trees.