Out of 10 zones of Nagpur city, the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has managed to complete the tree count of only five zones after 20 months of the project’s commencement. The civic body has appointed a private company named Terracon Ecotech Pvt. Ltd. of Mumbai to conduct the tree census, which was supposed to be complete within 11 months of its commencement, but the project is just half way even after the deadline. The civic body kicked off the second tree census after a gap of 12 years.

 

The first census was carried out by NMC in 2011 when the city had 21,43,838 trees. This time, census will be carried out with the help of GIS and GPS methods. The city is spread over 222 sq km and many new areas like Hudkeshwar and Narsala were later included. So, to know the current number of trees in the city was required and with this objective, the census started last year. As per the data provided by the civic body, the counting of trees in five zones -- Gandhibag, Nehru Nagar, Lakadganj, Ashi Nagar and Hanuman Nagar -- has been completed. Whereas, the counting is underway in Satranjipura zone and 35-40% trees are already recorded by the agency. The major tree cover of Nagpur city is in Laxmi Nagar, Dhantoli, Dharampeth and Mangalwari zones, where the tree counting is yet to complete. In Dhantoli and Dharampeth zones, 20-25% work has been completed so far.

 

There are only 5-10% trees counted in Laxmi Nagar zone and only 1-2% work completed in Mangalwari zone so far. In the last 20 months, the agency counted 26,14,363 total trees in all the 10 zones of Nagpur city, which is almost 5 lakh more than the previous census. Nehru Nagar zone has 7,40,956 trees which is the highest number among all the five completed zones. Similarly, Gandhibag zone has the lowest tree cover as the agency counted there only 59,528 trees even after many plantation drives encouraged by the State Government in last 5-6 years. All the completed five zones have a total of 19,45,927 trees. “The number of trees in city limits increased far more than our expectations in last 10 years. The number has already crossed the 26 lakh mark. We are expecting that the census will be completed by March 2025,” said Amol Chorpagar, Garden Superintendent, NMC to ‘The Hitavada’. The actual census should be done over a period of one year, which would be followed by four years of maintenance and updating information. The total cost of the work is to be paid in phases over a period of five years with a total expenditure of Rs 6 crore. Of this, 60% amount will be paid in the first two years and the remaining in three years — 13.33% per annum.

 

If the number of trees is more than 25 lakh, additional funds will be made available, the proposal stated.“We have paid around Rs 2 crore to the agency so far and as per the contract, the number crossed 25 lakh mark, therefore the additional fund will be first discussed in the tree committee meeting soon,” said Chorpagar. The expenses are borne from the amount received under the 1% tree cess which is included in the property tax. So far, the NMC has recovered tree cess of Rs 14 crore and the amount will be used for works related to trees and their conservation. “The tree census consists of total 34 primary attributes including girth, approximate height, canopy dimension, health condition, species, etc.

 

Under this process, we can record all these details of each and every tree in the city,” claimed Chorpagar. The agency is carrying out geo-enabled tree census using GIS and GPS technology; Preparing urban forestry plan, people’s biodiversity register, city biodiversity index and local biodiversity strategy and action plan; and development of tree census application, operation, maintenance and updation up to four years within NMC limits.