An urban forest was inaugurated at the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Prakash Javadekar. The office is located at the Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg. An intensive afforestation approach was adopted as the area was limited so trees that were native to the area were used. These trees multi-layered and three dimensional and their surface area is almost 30 times more than a regular lawn and they also help in conserving the environment.
The Minister tweeted” The urban forest with 12,000 seedlings of 59 indigenous species will act as a role model for offices in Delhi. Happy to note that Miyawaki method of forest creation is used which could help in reducing the tempby as much as 14 degree & increase the moisture by more than 40%”.
Some of the plants in this urban forest are Anogeissus pendula (Dhonk), Diospyros cordifolia (Bistendu), Ehretia laevis (chamrod), Wrightia tinctoria (Doodhi), Mitragyna parvifolia (Kaim), Butea monosperma (Palash), Prosopis cineraria (Khejri), Clerodendrum phlomidis(Arni), Grewia asiatica (Falsa), Phoenix sylvestris (Khajoor) and Helicteres isora (Marodphali).
The urban forest is made in such a way that through watering and de-weeding it will be self-sustainable by October 2021.
For the past few years, New Delhi has been ranked as one of the most polluted cities and has been looking towards ways to increase its greenery but limited space, an uneven expansion of the city has left it with challenges in this aspect. The Delhi Metro has adopted the vertical garden model on its pillars in some of its newly opened lines.
The office of CAG said that initiatives like this prove that a challenge has to be met with innovation and hopes that the initiative helps in inspiring many people to adopt these practices that will help in restoring the ecological balance.
