Pune civic body to finish tree census in 3 months

The tree census of Pune, which had began two years ago, is expected to be complete in the next three months. This was told to DNA by additional municipal commissioner of the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC), Naresh Zurmure, on Wednesday.

The tree census of Pune was undertaken in 1990s and after 15 years, the PMC started a new tree census two years ago. However, the census is yet to be completed in various parts of the city.

“Almost 80% of the city has been covered in the last two years, but the census work stopped due to the civic elections in the city,” he said.

New tenders have been floated by the PMC for Dhole Patil Road, Kasba, Vishrambaug Wada and Vishtrantwadi for counting of trees in these areas.

“Due to the promulgation of the code of conduct, we could not float the tenders for recruiting tree enumerators in these areas. So, the census was delayed,” he said.

Other than counting the number of trees, the enumerators would also be documenting the species of the trees, their age and other details. The tree census is important to understand the extent of deforestation in the city, and also to see the spread of exotic species.