CSMC targets on developing Green Belts

Lokmat News Network

Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar:

The Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar Municipal Corporation (CSMC), to reduce the threat of growing temperature in the city, has vowed to plant trees on a large scale under Majhi Vasundhara and Climate Change programmes.

The month of May is yet to commence, but the temperature of the city has touched 40 degrees celsius in the last week of April. This prompted the civic administration to chalk out a plan to control the temperature.

It may be noted that the then planning authority Cidco has developed an ideal city. It has developed Green Belts on 60-metre-wide roads including Jalgaon Road, N-3, Jalna Road and T V Centre Road. On the other hand, the municipal corporation has developed green belts at Aam Khas ground, Himayat Baugh road and a few other places. Besides, it has also developed Jambhul Van (BlackBerry garden) around Harsul Tank. Moreover, the municipal corporation plants 15,000 to 20,000 trees, every year, in its open spaces or open spaces in the housing societies. However, it has been noticed that the survival ratio of these planted trees is very less.

Climate Change Plan

The Government of India has launched the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) and has ordered dense cultivation of trees on 10 to 50 hectares of land on the outskirts of the city and on 2 to 10 hectares of land within the city limit. The government has announced an aid of Rs 4 lakh per hectare.

In reality, the above area of land is not available. Hence the civic administration is planning to undertake dense cultivation of trees at 5-6 spots including the Satara-Deolai areas.

Majhi Vasundhara

The CSMC has received an award of Rs 2 crore from the state government under Majhi Vasundhara Scheme. The money will be utilised to develop small gardens in different parts of the city like Itkheda, Satara-Deolai, Bhausinghpura and others.

Registration of 29K trees, so far

The municipal corporation with the help of a local NGO, Aurangabad First, is conducting a tree census in the city. Presently, the work has been stopped due to the summer vacation. So far, 29,243 trees have been registered on the app. Hence the real population of trees will be known to all after the completion of the census.

According to environmentalist Rajesh Bhosale, as per the international index, there should be 20 trees after every person. Ironically, the present ratio is one tree after every three persons. The dream of expanding the forest cover to up to 18 per cent in the district also remained on paper. The preference for the trees of foreign species is growing. This is not helping in creating the natural ecology of the environment. The foreign trees are green, but the birds do not sit on them; their life span is short and they could resist the growing temperature. Our one Indian tree-like Peepal, Banyan or Cluster Fig is equivalent to 40 foreign trees. The green belts should definitely be increased and those existing ones should be preserved.

Former garden superintendent of municipal corporation J M Bhadke said, there should be one tree on every gap of 10 feet on main roads. Every citizen should plant one tree in front of their house. There is a huge scope for planting trees on Jalna Road and Paithan Road. The planting of trees should also be undertaken by industries in their respective periphery and MIDC area.