NEW DELHI: A marginal enhance of 4.9 sq km has taken Delhi’s inexperienced cowl to 371.3 sq km, in line with India State Forest Report 2023, launched on Saturday. The forest cowl lowered by a tiny fraction however tree cowl improved, main the report back to state that 25% of Delhi’s whole geographical space of 1,483 sq km was below inexperienced cowl in 2023.
The biennial report by the Forest Survey of India was launched by Bhupender Yadav, Union minister for setting, forest and local weather change. The report discovered that town’s forest cowl noticed a slight discount in 2023 by 0.1 sq km in contrast with 2021, taking place to 195.28 sq km in 2023 from 195.36 sq km two years earlier. However, town’s tree cowl rose from 171.1 sq km in 2021 to 176 sq km in 2023, thus placing round 11.9% of the geographical space of Delhi below tree cowl.
Forest cowl has been outlined as all areas having tree cowl with cover density greater than or equal to 10% and above, and space greater than or equal to 1 hectare. Tree cowl is the realm coated by timber exterior the recorded forest areas.
The report modified its methodology this 12 months and revised knowledge for 2021 too, so whereas tree cowl and forest cowl within the report launched in 2021 confirmed forest and tree cowl at 147 sq km and 195 sq km, respectively, the 2023 report modified the info.
In Sept, the Supreme Court pulled up Delhi govt’s forest division for not apprising it of any complete measures taken to boost the capital’s inexperienced cowl. According to the report, Maharashtra has the utmost tree cowl (14,524.9 sq km) adopted by Rajasthan (10,841.1 sq km) and Uttar Pradesh (8,950.9 sq km). However, when it comes to share of geographical space, Chandigarh had the utmost tree cowl (18.6%) adopted by Delhi (11.9%) and Kerala (7.5%).
Of Delhi’s forest cowl of 195.3 sq km, very dense forest comprised 6.5 sq km, reasonably dense 53.6 sq km and open forest, 135.3 sq km in 2023. Among the 11 districts, New Delhi, with a forest cowl of 48.6 sq km in 2023, reported the very best discount by 0.9 sq km from 2021. A really dense forest is one with a cover density of 70% or extra. Moderately dense forests have a cover density between 40 and 70%, whereas open forests have a cover density between 10 and 40%.
A forest official stated, “The inexperienced cowl in Delhi has elevated to 25% of the geographical space. Efforts, together with plantation drives and compensatory plantation, have borne fruit.”
Experts, nonetheless, expressed considerations in regards to the methodology. CR Babu, professor emeritus and head of Centre for Environment Management of Degraded Ecosystems, stated, “Invasive species have been included within the forest cowl. In actuality, Delhi’s tree cowl is of low high quality as a result of it largely has single-storey invasive species which don’t contribute to town’s ecological capabilities.”
Activist Bhavreen Kandhari, who has gone to court docket a number of occasions for the safety of Delhi’s inexperienced cowl, stated, “Tree cowl can’t be calculated by satellite tv for pc imagery. Even a inexperienced tarpaulin resembles a tree cover. The report makes its calculations based mostly on the satellite tv for pc imagery of forest cowl, which it defines as ‘all lands multiple hectare in space with a tree cover density of greater than 10%’, together with plantations like champa and bougainvillea and orchards and grasses.”
Kandhari added that the fact was mirrored within the disappearance of 144 timber in a couple of years after a recorded tree census in Sarvodaya Enclave.
Tree activist Padmavati Dwivedi stated, “What species represent the rise in inexperienced cowl wants higher examine as a result of we see numerous exotics, particularly non-local palm timber. In current occasions, even vegetation which can be banned in some states resembling Conocarpus erectus have been planted in giant numbers in Delhi-NCR. If these are the vegetation which can be a part of the inexperienced cowl, then it is ne gative progress.”
Forest cowl down, however Delhi bit greener | Delhi News – Times of India
