Chandigarh, Oct 20 (Inditop.com) Chandigarh, already one of the greenest cities of the country, has brought around 3.73 hectares of more area under green cover by planting nearly 9,105 saplings during September, officials said here Tuesday.
“In an attempt to strengthen the drive to make Chandigarh more green, we had distributed 32,840 saplings free of cost to be planted on public land in the last few months. We have also undertaken a plantation drive to enrich the existing forests over an area of 108 hectares to improve the biodiversity of the region,” an official spokesperson for Chandigarh said.
He added: “The horticulture wing of the municipal corporation and the engineering department are undertaking replacement planting and gap filling in the city.”
As per the set target under the Greening Chandigarh Action Plan of the forest department, Chandigarh has decided to plant at least 69,581 trees and 48,406 shrubs by March next year.
Already, with 35.7 percent forest cover, Chandigarh tops the list as one of the greenest cities in Asia. In India, Delhi follows Chandigarh with nearly 20 percent forest cover.
“Out of its 114 square-kilometre area, Chandigarh has about 41 square-kilometres under forest cover and an additional nine square-kilometres under tree cover,” Ishwar Singh, conservator of forests and chief wildlife warden here, told Inditop.
According to the 2007 State Forest Report, the forest cover in Chandigarh increased to 35.7 percent of its total geographical area compared to 29.3 percent in 2003 and 21 percent in 1991.
This green cover has exceeded the 33 percent target set by the National Forest Policy of India that is required to maintain ecological balance and environmental cleanliness.
The total green cover area in India is 23.5 percent.
