Delhi’s green cover increases to 23% in 2 yrs: ISFR

New Delhi: Green cover of Delhi has increased from 21.88 per cent to 23.06 per cent of its geographical area in the last two years, as per the biennial India State of Forest Report (ISFR).

“In the current assessment, the extent of forest cover of seven major cities has been carried out. The total forest cover in the seven major cities is 509.72 sq km which is 10.21 per cent of total geographical area of the cities. It is seen that the Delhi has the largest forest cover (194.24 sq km), followed by Mumbai (110.77 sq km) and Bengaluru (89.02 sq km),” the report said.

The ISFR is a biennial publication of the Forest Survey of India, under the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change.

Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said: “Thanks to the historic public-first governance measures of the Delhi government, green cover of Delhi has increased by almost 18 sq km.

“The Union Environment Minister released the State of Forest Report (SFR)- 2021 today. As per this report, green cover of Delhi has increased by almost 18 sq km in comparison to SFR 2019.”

He pointed out that the overall green cover (forest cover and tree cover) is now 342 sq km (as per SFR 2021) which was earlier 324.44 sq km.

“Thus, there is a net increment of 17.5 sq km in green cover. In terms of percentage, the green cover of Delhi has increased from 21.88 per cent to 23.06 per cent of its geographical area in the last 2 years i.e. 2019-2021.

“There is also a slight increase in moderate dense forest from 56.42 sq km in 2019 to 56.60 sq km in 2021. There is no change in the very dense forest (6.2 sq km). The open forest which was 132.30 sq km in the year 2019 has now changed to 131.68 sq km,” he added.

Delhi government said in a statement that it aims to plant 33,00,000 saplings by March 2022. Delhi is also the first city to start a Tree Transplantation Policy where trees will be transplanted and at the same time, be replaced by 10 new trees.IANS