The tree census of Nagpur city, which commenced in April 2023, will take six more months to complete. NMC is working on issuing the work order for the second stage for the tree count by Terracon Ecotech Pvt. Ltd. of Mumbai soon. In the first phase, out of 10 zones, NMC has managed to complete the tree count of only five zones after two-and-a-half years of the project’s commencement. The Mumbai-based company, which was supposed to complete the whole process within 11 months of its commencement, stopped after the count reached 25 lakh. As per the contract, the company would count trees and if the number crosses 25 lakh, the contract would then be renewed. The company implemented the work order and within one year, it completed the tree count in city and sought renewal of the contract.

 

However, the NMC did not renew the contract of the company stalling the tree census. As per the latest development, NMC has submitted the departmental verification report to the Additional Municipal Commissioner Vaishnavi B and the final decision will be taken by Municipal Commissioner and Administrator Dr Abhijeet Chaudhari, informed Ganesh Rathod, Deputy Municipal Commissioner, Garden Department to ‘The Hitavada’. The civic body kicked off this 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 correctly reach the current number of trees in the city was required. “All processes are complete and after clearance from the Commissioner, the project will restart and within six months, the project will be completed,” claimed Rathod. To avoid such obstacles, the NMC, this time, gave full contract to the company till the last tree count. For this project, NMC is spending Rs 40 lakh. 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. As per the data provided by the civic body, the counting of trees in five zones -- Gandhibagh, Nehru Nagar, Lakadganj, Ashi Nagar and Hanuman Nagar -- has been completed.

 

Whereas, the counting is underway in Satranjipura zone and 35-40% trees have already been 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. The agency count reached 26,14,363 total trees in all the 10 zones of Nagpur city, which is almost 5 lakh more than the previous census.