The civic body is gearing up to plant a whopping 3 lakh trees in coming week.
Have you seen a 'jambo' or a 'gunda' tree in Ahmedabad's lanes? Chances are you haven't, and it isn't surprising either, given that these are two of the lesser-found species that make up only 1% of the total 83.2% kinds of green cover found in the city (as per the tree enumeration of 2004).
Soon, however, city roads will be dotted by several of these otherwise rare trees, all thanks to the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC)'s massive tree plantation drive, which plans to focus on planting traditional and rarely-found trees in the city.
The drive, a part of the state government's Swarnim Prakriti Mahotsav, will be held from July 26 to 31. Under the mahotsav, the AMC plans to plant around 3 lakh trees, while the Auda, under their jurisdiction, will plant around 3.5 lakh trees.
Interestingly, in the last 5 years, the AMC has planted around 2.8 lakh trees. And this year, as a part of the tree plantation drive, the civic body will plant 3 lakh trees in just a week's time. To choose the type of trees to be planted under the green drive, the AMC has taken the tree enumeration results of 2004 as the base reference. The data gathered in 2004 suggests that in the 43 wards in the city, there were around 3.48 lakh trees. Of these, around 25% were Neem trees. A total of 142 species were recorded in Ahmedabad.
Now however, with Ahmedabad's geographical boundaries having massively expanded, these statistics are bound to have changed. And the AMC has geared up to give the city the best permutation/combination of trees possible - including traditional ones, decorative ones with colourful flowers, as well as those with a long life.
Deputy municipal commissioner of the parks and garden department of the AMC, SK Langa, says that in this green initiative, the focus will be on traditional trees, and those that are seen as getting extinct in city limits.
Like every other time, they plan to plant a good number of Neem and Asopalav trees, as those have many health-related benefits.
"Moreover, we plan to plant trees like the umbaro, jambo etc, on account of their importance from the point of view of biodiversity. Flowery trees like Gulmohur and Garmado will also feature on the list," he says.
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