KMC's expert committee to soon come up with comprehensive urban forestry plan

Kolkata: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has formed an expert committee, which will soon come up with a comprehensive plan on how to move forward with urban forestry in the city.

Soon after taking over as the Mayor of Kolkata, state Urban Development and Municipal Affairs minister Firhad Hakim has formed a separate department titled Urban Forestry and has said that this will be his priority area.

The committee, with Member, Mayor-in-Council (Urban Forestry) Debasish Kumar as its chairman, comprises one environment expert each from Calcutta University and Jadavpur University, environment activist Bonani Kakkar, environment columnist Jayanta Basu and seven botanists of the civic body. The committee has already held its introductory meeting and the next meeting is scheduled on March 15.

"The rainy season is the time when we go for plantation. But space constraint in the city is a major challenge that we have to overcome when it comes to urban forestry. Our experts have opined that the planting of trees in North and South Kolkata should not be the same," a senior official of the Parks and Gardens department said.

It has been decided that to begin with, the expert committee will prepare a comprehensive map of the available space in the city and then decide on the plantation pattern. It may be mentioned that the storm in the city on Tuesday saw the toppling of more than 16 trees.

Noted ecologist Nandadulal Parui said that trees which usually follow a lateral growth pattern can withstand greater wind velocity than those that have a vertical growth pattern.

Trees like Bakul, Jarul, Gulmohar and Shirish have a lateral growth pattern. They grow to a medium height and have the capacity to withstand high wind velocity, which trees with vertical growth pattern cannot. In urban areas, taking care of the trees before plantation is of utmost importance.

It may be mentioned that in well-planned cities, especially in Europe, a minimum of 50 cubic feet of soil is provided for a tree's root system to expand. However, in Kolkata, hardly 10 cubic feet of soil is available on an average for the same and therefore, toppling of trees during squalls and thunderstorms is becoming a common phenomenon every year, according to the environmental experts.

Work for underground sewerage, underground telephone cables and underground electric wires are taking place on a regular basis, which is often destroying the roots of the trees, making them vulnerable to storms and squalls.