TMC plan for GREENING OF CALCUTTA

Within days of coming to power, the Trinamool Congress shows a very determined, well-planned,scientific way of the GREENING OF CALCUTTA.

Any Calcuttan moving through the streets of Calcutta would have noticed how within the last years, trees have been rampantly felled, in the name of development. Forest cover has gone down from 10% to 8%. This is an official figure. God knows what the real rate of cutting down of trees have been.

So, it makes sense to first PROTECT the trees as is evident from the TOI excerpt.

Following is excerpt from the Times of India -

"The new Kolkata Municipal Corporation board is ready to draw up plans to protect and increase the green cover of the city.

The KMC authorities will sit with forest department officials in a day or two to chalk out a comprehensive plan on this count. MMiC (parks and squares) Debasish Kumar said the process to identify spots where saplings needed to be planted would soon begin.

"The stress won't be on how many new tress have been planted. Our aim will be to protect the trees that have already been planted," Kumar said, adding that efforts would be made to save at least 85% of the existing trees in the city.

KMC also wants to revive and revamp its own nurseries. "Over the past few years, the KMC nurseries have not been functioning properly and there's been a drastic fall in the number of saplings. We may buy saplings from forest department nurseries, but we'll try to use our own resources," said Kumar.

The truth is, afforestation and tree plantation programmes are conducted every year, but the city's green cover has been shrinking rapidly. A forest department survey a few years ago had pegged the city's green cover at just 10%, while the latest estimates put this at 8%."