City Pulse

Bengaluru, once called the city of gardens, has been losing its green cover at an alarming rate due to rapid urbanisation and uncontrolled growth. In the past 40 years, the total concrete area in the city has increased by 1005% — a whopping 100 times! According to satellite images studied by scientists from IIT, Kharagpur, and the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, in 2017, only 6.46% of the city’s area was covered with vegetation and 78.7% was built up area, compared to 68.2% green cover and 7.97% built-up area in 1973.

“Economic development comes with its own disadvantages. One of the biggest victims of this progress are trees, with hundreds of them being cut to clear space for buildings and other constructions,” says Vijay Nishanth, founder of Project Vruksha Foundation and a noted tree conservationist in Bengaluru. According to IISc research, seven trees are required per person to maintain a healthy CO2 balance in the environment, but the current ratio is just the reverse. There are about 14 lakh trees in the city, which has a population of around one crore, which means the tree-to-people ratio is an abysmal 1:7.

Although it is essential to cut trees for infrastructure projects like construction of metro lines and widening of roads, the government needs to ensure it compensates for the loss of green cover by transplanting trees or planting new ones. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Ltd (BMRCL) recently set an example in this regard by transplanting 185 trees that were to be cut for the construction of Namma Metro’s Gottigere-Nagawara line. The BMRCL outsourced the transplantation project to an expert agency and 185 trees from Swagath Road Cross to Gottigere were transplanted at a cost of Rs 10,750 each to locations like the IIM-B campus and Shantiniketan Park in Arekere. Taking a leaf out of the BMRCL’s book, citizens and environmentalists have taken up projects for transplantation of trees in Whitefield, Kanakpura, and Sarjapur areas of the city.

For effective transplantation, experts first identify trees that are strong enough to withstand the process. Then a ‘root bowl’ (a pot-like bowl) is created in which the roots are treated with medicines and later packed. Then the tree is transplanted at the identified spot with the help of a crane. Some medicines and fertilizers are applied at the spot and the tree is watered regularly. Every tree has its own strength and nutrient supply levels, so the area of its transplantation needs to be kept under constant observation to ensure that it thrives. “It is always better to shift the trees within a 5-km radius, so the soil content is similar and the trees have a higher chance of survival. The success rate depends on how the trees are maintained by the people concerned after transplantation,” added Nishanth.

NGOs and environment-conscious citizens have taken many other initiatives to conserve and revive the green cover in the city. Since June 2015, the Adamya Chetana Foundation (ACF) has been spearheading a campaign to restore the green cover in the city. Their aim is to ensure that one crore saplings are planted in four years. The ACF is a voluntary organisation working in the field of social development under the patronage of Ananth Kumar, MP, Bengaluru South, and Union minister for Parliamentary affairs and chemicals and fertilizers.

Its Green Bengaluru 1:1 project which has roped in citizens, is aimed at ensuring that the tree-to-people ratio in the city is to 1:1. As part of another initiative, Green Sunday, members of ACF along with citizen volunteers plant trees in various parts of the city. “For the past 116 Sundays we have planted thousands of saplings in south Bengaluru and have also conducted programmes like eco-chetana to create awareness about the importance of trees among citizens,” says Muraridhar Deshkulkarni, who works with ACF.

Picture Courtesy: Swetha Gowda