BENGALURU: After a delay of three long years, tree census in the IT hub will finally take off within a month or two. This will be held after holding a workshop for staffers and volunteers in the 198 wards. The tree census work will be done in collaboration with NGOs that are experts in using technology and identifying various species of plants.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagar Palike’s (BBMP) decision comes in the wake of the Karnataka High Court directing it to carry out a comprehensive tree census within six months. The September 11 court order was based on a PIL filed by Bangalore Environment Trust. As per the trust, BBMP was not interested in doing a census as lesser number of trees could be shown on paper and further, infrastructure projects were being split to avoid permission under the less than 50 clause. In fact, many concerned environmental groups have contested BBMP’s claims on the number of trees felled either for Metro, road projects, underpasses or flyovers.
BBMP DCF M K Cholarajappa told The New Indian Express, “We have held a series of meetings to address the issues pertaining to tree census and also held talks with tree experts to coordinate and support us in this initiative. Presently, we are getting information from all the ward committees of Bengaluru and are planning to hold a series of workshops to educate about various species.”
Since the BBMP forest division does not have the necessary staff for carrying out the census, it will be citizen centric involving volunteers. Further, BBMP will take expert help of the NGOs who have experience of tree counting and identifying species.
Meanwhile, Project Vruksha, a city-based NGO that has carried out tree census in three wards of Bengaluru met the BBMP forest officials on Thursday. Vijay Nishanth of Project Vruksha said, “We have demonstrated our system of tree census to forest officials and they have expressed their happiness with our method. We have quantified the city’s biodiversity through a scientific tree census. Through this project, one can know where trees are felled due to rains or have been cut for a project illegally.”
This census will help figure out how many trees have been lost in the past two decades for various projects. The census will give a clear picture about trees that have been planted as compensatory afforestation either by Metro or for other road projects.