Golwadi and Padegaon are now city’s ‘Green Lungs’

1.60 lakh trees and counting—This NGO Is on a green Aurangabad mission

VAIBHAV PARWAT

Aurangabad, June 4:

With a mission to make the city green and enhance oxygen levels in Aurangabad, a city based NGO ‘Jansahyog Foundation’ has been trying to conserve the environment by building green cover around the city. The foundation has planted over 1.60 lakh trees at 28 different locations in and around Aurangabad over a period of nine years. It now aims to plant 25 lakh trees in the coming years.

Jansahyog has planted 13,000 species of 177 varieties on 10 to 15 acres of land in the Golwadi area of the Aurangabad Cantonment, which was earlier a dumping ground. The site that has become a biodiversity park, contains some of the rarest trees including Yellow snake tree (Padal), Buttercup (Sonsawar), Bonfire tree (Kaushi), White Shirish, Pistacia integerrima (Kakadshingi), Krishna vad and Humb tree. The site is home to many varieties of birds and insects.

Giving more information, Jansahyog founder Prashant Gire, said, "The NGO aims to increase the green cover in the city and enhance the oxygen levels further, regulate temperature variations and work towards providing a healthy tomorrow to the citizens. We also aim to create biodiversity parks in Marathwada which has only 4 per cent forest cover. Along with native trees, we plant the trees that are nearly extinct. The project at Padegaon has 200 such trees. Till date, we have planted 1.60 lakh trees in Aurangabad and want to expand our work in Latur and Osmanabad that have the lowest forest cover.”

Proper tree identification necessary

The widely planted trees are the Neem tree. Planting one species of tree, disturbs the balance of the flora and the fauna. Native trees suitable for mountains are Khair, Katesavar, Karvand, Ritha and Ber that play a role of a host plant for the survival of tiny insects. Hence taking a proper approach to tree plantation is necessary, said Gire.

Trees watered every Sunday

The Jansahyog with its local volunteers has been watering all the trees every Sunday using tankers. The organization maintains these trees for a few years. Drip irrigation is also used to reduce water wastage. The money is raised only by the members.