The Times of India 26.07.2012
IMC plans to develop 30-acre forest in city
INDORE: Indore has lost
the tag of Shab-e-Malwa mainly due to felling of a huge number of trees
for construction work in the past few years. Now, the Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) is coming up with a city forest project on over 30 acre of land to compensate for the loss of the green cover.
Mayor Krishnamurari Moghe
said that civic body was developing 30 acre of land as city forest
wherein different species of saplings would be planted. Work for
leveling the ground and constructing small ponds will be started soon.
Besides this, the entire track of the land will be surrounded by trench
line and herbs will be planted on it.
City has lost around more
than 40,000 trees in the past few years and attempts to plant saplings
on the road dividers and road side failed to give desired results. Even
the idea of green belt along the side of roads also failed to produce
any result.
On the other hand, a survey on ‘City Resilience
Strategy for Changing Climate Scenarios’ conducted by an NGO, TARU, on
behalf of the IMC has observed that the temperature during summer in the
city will cross 50 degree Celsius in the next five decades. Right now,
the maximum temperature in the city goes up to 42 degree Celsius during
summer.
Civic officials said that development of city forest
offset the impact of increasing temperature and it will also help check
the rising pollution in the city. A project cannot be successful without
the involvement of people and keeping this in view, the civic body is
planning to involve school children and the residents of the city in the
project.
“Plantation will be done with the help of school
children, so that they will have attachment with the trees and they will
learn the importance of preserving the environment,” the mayor said.