When the world celebrates Environment Day on Wednesday, it looks like
Kochi Corporation authorities are yet to realise the necessity of
initiating more projects for maintaining the greenery of the city.
Though
the civic body has mooted an idea to plant saplings in the city after
identifying the specialties of the location, to enlarge the thin green
belt, the idea is yet to materialise. It was decided to join hands with
the Social Forestry wing of the Kerala Forest Department to work out a
proper green plan for the city.
As per a recent survey conducted
by the students of Rajagiri School of Social Sciences, the total number
of trees in Kochi city were assessed as 6,440. This include large,
medium and small trees. As per the survey, there were nearly 540
saplings in the city. But some environmentalists point out that the
Corporation authorities are yet to show more interest in launching a
proper plan for planting more saplings and to protect the existing ones.
In
the wake of the complaints, the Corporation authorities mooted the idea
of planting tree species based on the features of the locality.
“The
idea was too good. For instance, if saplings grow into huge trees in
built-in or busy areas, it would have an adverse effect.
Later
branches would have to be chopped off and eventually the tree would be
destroyed. Hence the civic body should soon take steps to implement the
plan,” experts said.As monsoon is the right time to plant trees in a
proper manner, the Environment Day was an ideal time for the civic body
to carry out its plan.
Meanwhile, Deputy Mayor B Bhadra said the
civic body would join hands with South Community Development Society
(CDS) of Kudumbasree for launching ‘Ente Kochikku Oru Maram’ project.
Under this project, saplings will be distributed to 500 Ayalkoottam
units.
