When on one hand, the caste-based census is going on in different localities of the city, can different trees be left behind? In a bid to check the level of green cover in the city, the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) has embarked on a tree census in the city, which kicked off from Sunday. The forest department and botany department of Gujarat University (GU) is helping the civic body in the counting work.
The volunteers of the census stated that the first day went on peacefully. Some of the volunteers were seen enjoying the task of tree counting as it also led to their knowledge enhancement. Only those trees with height of 4.5 foot of trunk or above and thickness of 10 cms were only included in the category of trees by the volunteers. "after rigorous training on identification of the trees, the volunteers are finally ready to count and mark the trees of the city," said one of the co-ordinator of the volunteers.
The tree census will be carried every Sunday till the end of February or first week of March and the final counting or drafting will be completed by April this year. "This is the first time that we will be carrying out full-fledged tree census. Earlier, in 2005-06, the trees were counted on random technique," said deputy municipal commissioner, SK Langa. He further said that the city needs at least 24 lakh more trees to get 15% green cover, which is a minimal requirement for a city.
Not only are the trees being counted, but also their types will be determined. For this, the students of Botany department of GU have prepared a booklet with images of the tree and its name. The entire city has been divided into three zones: Cantonment area (where greenery is the maximum), green patches (where patches of green areas prevail) and other areas with less greenery. "We have prepared the zones taking the help of Google image and BISAG." While the cantonment area has been allotted 100 volunteers, the green patches zone and other areas has been allotted 210 and 1,400 volunteers, respectively. Also, the heritage trees will be specially photographed and will be especially recorded or considered in another list.
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