BENGALURU: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), which is holding a tree census within its limits, has counted 2.5 lakh trees in 80 wards. The enumeration that has been going on since January will likely see an extension in the deadline, which was scheduled to be August.
BBMP Deputy Conservator of Forest (DCF) BLG Swamy said two agencies have been tasked with carrying out the tree census across the city. As there were technical glitches and other challenges, the deadline will now be extended by a few more months, he added.
As per BBMP, the census is fully done in Hanumantha Nagar, Srinagar, Gali Anjaneya Temple, Girinagar, Kathriguppe, Vidyapeeta and two other wards. These wards have over 30,000 trees in all. The agencies have painted the code on each tree and uploaded it on the website.
Jeevan, one of the two contractors, said, “Along with another agency, we have taken up the census work. The work was affected because of a software issue and fixing it took four months. When we deployed a team of botanists and others to resume the work, some of them collapsed because of severe heat in March and April. We had to stop the work then. Now due to rain, painting codes on trees is a challenge. We expect the civic agency to extend the deadline.”
He said the girth, location and other details of each tree are fed into software. Once the photo and botanical name of a tree is added, its local name automatically pops up, he explained.
DCF Swamy said the census will help BBMP know the exact tree cover in the city. Based on the census report, the Palike can also decide where to take up tree planting drives, he added.
“Bengaluru is known as Garden City and it is time to know what is the total number of trees in the city. Permission has been taken to survey private areas too. So far, 2.5 lakh trees have been counted in 80 wards,” he said. BBMP has 198 wards.