Gurugram: Acknowledging that Gurugram green cover is losing rapidly to the development of the city, the Municpal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is planning various steps to improve the greenery in the Millennium city. Among the major executions in this regard, there are plans to open 100 sewage treatment plants (STPs) across various areas in the city.
The main objective of this plan is to not only treat the sewage and utilise it effectively but also reduce the usage of potable water that is presently used to provide water to improve the green cover. It is important to note that 40 percent of the water usage is fulfilled by drawing water from the ground which has depleted the ground water to alarming levels in the city.
This is not a new concept, however, that has been mulled by the civic body. Earlier, the Haryana Urbana Development Authority (HUDA) had also said that the three major parks of the city under its control will also be provided water that has been treated in the sewage plant.
For long, the adverse impact of urbanisation and rapid development on the green cover has been felt significantly in national Capital's rich neighbour Gurugram. Barring the degrading forest cover of Aravallis, there have been more than 6,000 trees that were chopped during the developmental works at NH-8.
The process of massive felling of trees has also been reported from other major routes of the city like Gurugram – Faridabad road and Old Delhi road. Once considered as a preferred destination by many people for shifting their residential address because of its green spaces, Gurugram today is choking under the depleting green cover.
According to an official data, while the green cover of Gurugram district is meagre 8 percent while that of Gurugram city is only three percent. This green cover also includes the forest area of Aravallis that too in a recent report by Wildlife Institute of India is receding. Even though the state forest department's had targeted to enhance the green cover of the city to 10 per cent and subsequently 20 percent in the coming years, it has not been able to meet its target.
Ironically, Delhi which has 10 times the population of Gurugram has a much higher green cover than its neighbour. In late 80's and mid 90's, most of the people migrated from Delhi to Gurugram because of vast open and green spaces in Gurugram.