MillenniumPost
Delhi

Urbanisation, poor upkeep leave trees to die in Millennium City

Gurugram: Facing rapid urbanisation, the authorities of Gurugram have long been blamed for not doing enough on the massive felling of trees in the city. However, the state of trees that are surviving is also not that bright. According to environment experts, poor techniques adopted in growing of the new saplings, exploitation of the trees in form of drilling, poor groundwater recharging facilities have worsened the condition of surviving trees in the city. They further pointed out that how exploitations in form of drilling nails inside the bark of tree resulted in oozing out of the sap, causing infections and subsequent death to the trees.
Often the impact of weak root structure of trees is felt during monsoon season or during dust storms when most of the trees are unable to withstand the wind pressure and fall off.
Professor Rommel Mehta, head of department of landscape from School of Planning and Architecture said, "The weakness of the trees can also be visible from the fact that these days most of the trees in urban areas of national capital region are not attaining their standard height." "Today the soft surfaces in the city are gradually decreasing and the water that is expected to seep inside the ground is flowing off, this affects the roots of the trees. An average lifespan of the tree should be about 50-100 years however trees in the city are barely able to survive for even 15 years," he added.
"I really think, we do not understand the significance of trees especially in context of Gurugram where the groundwater reserves have reached at extremely low levels. While thousands of trees are being felled for development, I feel the urban planners have deliberately made sure that those which are surviving are also not taken care of so that ultimately they can also be chopped off," said Ranjana Malik, a city resident.
With dwindling green cover in the city becoming a major challenge, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) had mulled over the formation of data bank to count the number of trees in the city. There were also plans to ensure strict vigilance on the preservation of green cover. Yet, after more than eight months, the plans have not been executed. For long, there have been complaints of not having a centralised agency in the city that can design a comprehensive framework for enhancing the green cover of the city.
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