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.