Tree census yet to begin in Kochi

KOCHI: Tree census, a project to prepare a database of trees announced a couple of years ago, is yet to take place even as the civic authorities have announced more green projects in its annual budget.

Protecting trees

The census was announced a couple of years ago on the realisation that the civic body lacked baseline data on the number of trees located in public places in the city.The authorities thought of evolving a strategy for protecting the trees based on the data as the instances of illegal felling shot up in the city. There were also incidents of miscreants destroying the saplings planted along the roads including the National Highway that passes through the city.

Recently, a few trees located in the central median of the National Highway at Vyttila were destroyed.

It was in January 2009 that the Town Planning Committee of the Kochi corporation cleared the project. Though the Kochi Corporation council too cleared the proposal for assigning the task to Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, the project could not be launched following some objections from a senior official of the civic body, said E.M. Sunilkumar, chairman of the Town Planning Standing committee of the corporation.

Later, the civic authorities included the proposal in People's Plan programme with an estimate of Rs. 6 lakh and the District Planning Committee cleared the project on March 26. The project can be implemented if an agreement is signed between the Kochi corporation and the College before March 31, Mr. Sunilkumar said.

The Deputy Mayor, while stating that the global warming and climate change were the inevitable signs of decline of a social system based on profit and class differentiation, said that one lakh saplings would be planted in the city.

The open spaces, parks, sideways of main roads and crematoriums would be used for the purpose, the budget proposal said.

The formation of a monitoring committee headed by K. Sukumaran, former judge of the Kerala High Court, was announced in the budget for protecting the existing trees and planting saplings.

Silent zone

The area between Fine Arts Hall junction and the High Court junction would be notified as a silent zone and the area will be protected as green belt, the budget announced.

Source: The Hindu, dated: 29th march 2010