Green cover up in central, south Delhi, down in west

NEW DELHI: Tree-plantation drives, citizens’ efforts and the National Green Tribunal’s 2015 order to reclaim the southern ridge from encroachments seem to be paying off. Satellite data shows there has been a discernible increase in green cover in south and central Delhi over the last three years.
In terms of the assembly constituencies, Great Kailash showed the maximum rise with an increase of 15.2 in the greenery index, followed by New Delhi (14.7) and Malviya Nagar (14.7).Kalkaji gained 14.3 while R K Puram constituency saw an increase of 13.3.
However, industrial locations and those showing rise in built-up area — mainly in west, southwest and extreme north Delhi — have lost green cover during this period, with Najafgarh topping the list. It showed a change in green index of -11.2, followed by Matiala (-8.5), Narela (-6.8), Bawana (-6.8) and Mundka (-4.8).
For the analysis, TOI used satellite data (beyond nightlight monitoring) and made use of European Space Agency satellite, Sentinel-2, which releases a high-resolution satellite image across the world every five days.
Long-term data analysis of the images revealed the change in built-up area (an indicator of urbanisation) and the change in green cover around Delhi-NCR. Data showed while south Delhi has been reclaiming its greenery over the last three years, industrialising parts of south Haryana have been losing green cover.
In terms of losing green cover, Haryana has fared the worst overall with areas south of Faridabad – particularly around Palwal – seeing the highest increase in built-up area. Hodal (-34.2), Palwal (-30.6) and Hathin (-29.8) in Faridabad have seen the highest drop in green cover in Delhi NCR, followed by Punahana (-27.8) and Pataudi (-24.8), both of which fall in Gurgaon.
Badhkal in Faridabad fared the best in NCR, recording an increase in green cover of 9.83 in the index since 2016, the data showed.
Delhi Forest department officials said the increase in green cover could be due to the two-pronged approach they have been adopting, with focus on carrying out plantation as well removing encroachments which fall in the ridge area. Following an NGT order in 2015 to demarcate the southern ridge, the forest department has gradually been reclaiming ridge area from encroachments. It said 35 hectares has been reclaimed in the last six months alone. However, another 370 hectares out of the 6,200 hectares under the southern ridge is yet to be reclaimed.
“We’ll require considerable manpower as well as the special task force and police personnel to reclaim area where multi-storeyed buildings have come up. In some locations, entire colonies exist and we have already written to the DDA VC who heads this task force,” said a forest official.
An eco-task force, which assists the Delhi forest department in protecting the ridge is part of the patrolling team. Forest officials said in addition to this, greening drives have been extremely successful. While on an average, close to 20 lakh saplings are being planted by Delhi’s greening agencies which include the three corporations, DDA, NDMC, BSES, DMRC and PWD, among others, Delhi has a target of planting 23 lakh saplings this year. In addition, 4.25 lakh free saplings were announced to be distributed free of cost this year (2019-20).
Delhi has gradually been gaining green cover according to the India State of Forests Report (ISFR). In 2013, Delhi’s green cover was 20.1%, increasing to 20.2% in 2015 and 20.6% in 2017, according to the latest ISFR (2017).
The report, however, had also pointed out that Delhi was losing out on “very dense forests” and “moderately dense forests”, two of the three categories used to describe forest cover. Very dense forests declined from 6.94sq km in 2015 to 6.72sq km in 2017. Moderately dense forests fell from 57.15sq km in 2015 to 56.24sq km in 2017. According to the report, only ‘open forests’ have seen a rise, going from 124.68sq km in 2015 to 129.45sq km.
Forest officials said to maintain density, “vacancy” filling is carried out by the department in locations where saplings or mature trees have died. “We have a target of 4.3 lakh trees this year, out of which 2.5 lakh was carried out in the southern ridge. Around 1 lakh was done along the Yamuna near the northern ridge and remaining has been vacancy filling to replace dead saplings,” said a forest official.