Covid delays third-party audit of plantation drives

New Delhi: A third-party audit of the plantation drives conducted by the Delhi forest department from 2016 to 2019 has been delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, officials said on Thursday.

The department had roped in Forest Research Institute, Dehradun, in April last year to conduct an audit of the saplings planted during the period to ascertain their survival rate.

We have already submitted 50 per cent of the funds to FRI. They were supposed to start the exercise in October last year, but then COVID-19 cases started increasing in Delhi, a senior forest department official said.

Later, FRI said the audit will begin in April, but the second wave of Coronavirus hit the city, he said. mpost