Civic body yet to begin work on tree census
The Ludhiana Municipal Corporation (MC) is yet to begin work on the tree census in the city. Though tenders were floated once, the work was not allotted and now the MC is accessing the viability of the project before taking the final call on starting the census.
The plan is to do a comprehensive GIS and GPS mapping and quantitative analysis of trees under the jurisdiction of the civic body. It will also help in preventing illegal cutting of trees.
Kapil Arora, a social activist and member of the Public Action Committee, said illegal cutting of trees goes unabated in the city and to check the same, they had filed a petition with the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Acting on the petition submitted by the Council of Engineers, in August 2023, the NGT had ordered the MC to do a survey of the number of trees.
Though the Municipal Corporation had assured the NGT to complete the tree census across the city by December 2023, it has not even initiated the process so far.
The petition was filed by members of the public action committee (PAC) emphasising the important role of trees in maintaining ecological balance after which the NGT had directed civic body officials to conduct a comprehensive tree counting process in response to petitions filed against encroachments on green belts in the city.
Kapil Arora said: “The MC has failed to comply with the orders of the NGT in maintaining complete record of the trees and now, they plan to approach the NGT again for violation of the compliance,” he said.
Amandeep Singh Bains, member, PAC, and environmentalist said the tree census would also help in understanding species composition of the studied area, tree to human population ratio, monitoring and maintenance, management of defective trees, carbon sequestration potential, etc.
The XEN, MC, GP Singh, said the work for the tree census could not be allotted, though tenders were floated. The civic body is accessing the viability of the project before finally beginning the work on the tree census.
