Indian Express 25.01.2010
BMC to begin planting Andhra trees this week
This week, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will begin its ambitious project of planting the first batch of the 7,200 trees purchased from Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh in December. Nearly 3,000 trees will soon adorn the city roads across Marine Drive, Worli Seaface, Andheri-Kurla Road and Andheri-Dahisar Road in the first phase of the BMC’s tree plantation drive.
And if the recent greening of the Mumbai airport in its Sahar and Santacruz terminals are anything to go by, the trees could see a 100 percent survival rate, provided they are being taken care of.
The Mumbai International Airport Private Ltd (MIAL) had early last year purchased nearly 1,000 trees from South India to beautify the airport. Today, the organisation states that all its trees have survived with just basic maintenance at minimal cost.
“MIAL is undertaking a comprehensive landscaping exercise at the airport. We had procured around 1,000 trees , most of them from Rajahmundry and some from Chennai in 2009. The change is already evident at both the domestic and international terminals,” Manish Kalghatgi, official spokesperson of MIAL said.
Like the BMC, MIAL too purchased only trees of Indian origin like the Foxtail Palm, Date Palm, Ficus Benjamina, Plumeria, etc, from AP. While the organisation refused to comment on the procurement cost, Kalaghatgi stated that trees were more expensive in Mumbai. “They were brought from AP because the diversity of specimens and the number of trees required for the landscaping were not available in Mumbai,” he added.
MIAL said no special care is required for the airport trees. “Regular maintenance such as pruning, manuring, watering, etc, is carried out. We have a dedicated team of five horticulturists to look after the landscaping at the airport,” Kalaghatgi said.
Deputy Municipal Commissioner Chandrashekar Rokade said, “We have made arrangements for regular monitoring, watering and maintaining of the trees. Every ward has a horticulturist and a tree officer who will be responsible for the up keep of the new plantations.”
Rokade said, while 3,000 trees — like some species of palms and barringtonias — would be planted now, about 4,000 will be kept in the Byculla zoo nursery to be planted after the monsoons.
Environmentalist and tree expert Dr Ashok Kothari of the Bombay Natural History Society said out that the tree plantations may be a positive step by the BMC in expanding the green lung of the city. “Three to four-year-old trees are usually sturdier than saplings and have a better survival rate. However, the BMC should choose species according to specific areas (for example, barringtonias grow well on the sea side).” Mangroves expert Rishi Aggarwal added, “We should take this as an experiment and observe the results
“The draft policy is ready and the Environment department has invited objections. After addressing the objections, the policy draft would be placed before the government for approval,” said Alok Ranjan, Principal Secretary of Environment.
Under the policy, the government has to ensure that new development projects do not affect the environment. A Climate Change Research Fund will be made to support research activities on climate change and other environment issues.
A fixed percentage share in the annual budget of development-related departments would be earmarked for environment conservation and pollution control.
The Environment department will separately review the expenditure of this fraction of budget.
According to officials, the objective for formulating the policy is the conservation and safety of sensitive areas valuable in terms of economic progress and welfare of human beings. Once the policy is approved, the government will have to consider all environment-related aspects while making policies and schemes for economic and social development.
“The policy aims to create awareness in the masses and ensure their participation in conservation of environment resources,” said Ranjan.
The policy will ensure effective implementation of Acts, notification and guidelines framed by the Centre and the state. The government will have to spell out a strategy for implementation of the policy at various levels — divisions, district, vikas khand and gram panchayat.
According to the draft, the state government will adopt the steps taken by the Centre for improvement in the quality of environment resources. The state will also have to support the State Level Expert Appraisal Committee (SEAC), formed by the Environment and Forest Ministry, in issuance of environmental clearance for setting up industries and development projects.
The government will do an environment impact assessment of all such projects that could demand change of land use of agricultural land. Non-agricultural activities would be restricted on agricultural land. For development and industrial projects, generally barren land would be used.
Agricultural land could be provided for it only in unavoidable circumstances and that too after approval from the State Land Use Board, says the draft policy.
Plantation would be undertaken on a large scale to increase forest cover in the state from the current 7 per cent to 20 per cent by 2022.
The Environment department will prepare an online data base of biodiversity in areas relating to forests, agriculture and animal husbandry.
Existing wetlands would be identified and an inventory formed. The government will conserve nine wetlands identified in UP under the National Wetland Conservation Programme.
To check air pollution, use of coal, kerosene and biomass would be restricted and supply of LPG for cooking would be ensured. Industries would be motivated to use environment friendly technologies and go in for eco-labelling of products.
One person from each village would be trained about environment and he would be nominated as “Paryavaran Mitra’ with his job being to create environment awareness among people.