1.70 crore saplings planted in 7 yrs of Kejriwal govt: Gopal Rai

New Delhi: Around 1.70 crore saplings have been planted in the seven years of the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi so far, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Tuesday.

He said the city government had targeted to plant 33 lakh saplings this year. Of this, 22 lakh have already been planted.

Between 2015 and 2019, the green cover in Delhi increased by around 2,500 hectares, Rai told reporters at a press conference.

He also said the city government will organise a "Wildlife Conservation Awareness Campaign" at the Asola Bhatti Wildlife Sanctuary from October 2-8.

At present, Delhi's green cover, comprising forest and tree cover, is 324 sq km or 21.9 percent of the total area, according to the India State of Forest Report (ISFR) released in 2019.

It was 305.4 sq km or 20.6 percent in 2017.

The National Forest Policy aims at bringing a minimum one-third of India's total geographical area under green cover.

The green cover should be at least 66 percent of the total area in hilly regions and 20 percent in the plains.

The minister said the Delhi government had asked the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, to conduct an audit to ascertain the survival rate of the saplings.

"The FRI has given a primary report. According to it, the survival rate varies from 50 percent to 90 percent. A detailed final report will be sent in one month," he said.

The Delhi Development Authority (DDA) has provided 638 hectares of land to the forest department to plant saplings along the Yamuna since 1975, and 624 hectares of that have been utilised, official data showed.

The forest department planted 4,85,526 saplings on the banks of the river during this period, according to the data.

The DDA handed over 139.5 hectares of land to the forest department for compensatory plantation against tree felling permission issued under the Delhi (Preservation) of Trees Act (DPTA) for various projects between 2014 and 2020.

A total of 1,65,086 saplings have been planted on this land, according to government data.