Civic body to plant 12 lakh saplings in next five years to reach desired target.
Ahmedabad is developing by leaps and bounds — and this is not being done at the cost of harming of its green cover. And now, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is making ambitious plans to achieve the third position in the country for 'cities with the largest green cover'.
According to international standards, every city must have around 20-22% of green cover. However, no city in India has yet achieved the required international standard. The city with highest green cover is New Delhi which has 19% of green cover. Bangalore is second with 17%. Ahmedabad aims to achieve 14% by 2015, which will make it the third highest in the country.
Kolkata has a green cover of just 7%, while Mumbai stands high at 13%, Chennai has 11% and Pune 13%.
Through various projects and various changes in structural designs, AMC is planning to preserve trees in projects like road widening and construction of new BRTS routes. Apart from that, efforts are being made to increase the green cover by planting saplings.
A senior official of AMC told DNA, "To maintain the climate of the city, we have decided to strive and achieve a target of 14 %." The green cover of the city in 2005-06 was just 4.5%, which was a marginal increase from the 1995-96 figures of 4.2%.
"These figures were alarming, as the marginal increase was also due to the inclusion of new areas in AMC," said the official.
Based on the figures of 2005-06, AMC has decided to plant 12 lakh saplings during five years to reach the desired target.
According to AMC's survey, eight lakh saplings were planted in 2010 and the survival rate was 75%. In 2011, 2.5 lakh were planted and the survival ratio was 90%.
"If we move ahead with these figures and maintain the survival rate, the day is not far when we will be the third ranked city with the highest green cover," said the official.
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