46 lakh trees in the city... and counting; Pune tree census could get city past Bengaluru for no of trees

PUNE The geo-enabled tree census being conducted by Pune the Municipal Corporation (PMC) has now covered as many as 46 lakh trees in the city, even as the private

Published on: Jan 5, 2021, 18:45:51 IST

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PUNE The geo-enabled tree census being conducted by Pune the Municipal Corporation (PMC) has now covered as many as 46 lakh trees in the city, even as the private agency conducting the census claims that a “few more” trees are yet to be counted.

The PMC had allocated the tender for the tree census to SAAR IT Resources in 2016.

According to the Environment Status Report (2019-2020) released by PMC, the census of 41,94,623 trees had been completed, while by the end of 2020, the number has gone up to 46 lakh.

During the tree census conducted in 2013, PMC had counted 38.60 trees in the city, which has 350 sq km area and a population of 35 lakh, as per the 2011 census.

PMC’s boundary has been extended twice after the tree census began in the city.

In 2017, the state government merged 11 villages with the PMC, while recently the process of including 23 more villages into the civic limits has been cleared by the state government.

The number of trees in PMC limits is expected to rise exponentially as the tree census in these newly merged villages has not been done yet.

Also, apart from these 46 lakhs trees, over three lakh trees from the old limits of the city are yet to be included in the census, said officials from PMC and SAAR IT.

“We have now completed the census of 46 lakhs trees in the city. There are 3-4 lakhs trees yet to be included. Right now we do not have any idea by how much this number will grow once we complete the census from these newly merged villages,” said Guruswami Tumale assistant garden superintendent, PMC.

According to the officials from SAAR IT, most of the work related to the census was completed in 2018.

Due to administrative approvals some patches of census work remain, expected to be finished in the next six months. “Till now we have completed the census of 46 lakh trees in PMC limits. Due to approvals and permissions census of 2-3 lakh trees is remaining. Some properties are closed permanently. Owners are abroad. We can’t go in there to complete the work. Some patches are still to be included. We hope to complete this work in the next six months. I don’t have any idea about the tree census in the newly merged villages. Maybe PMC will float another tender,” said Yogesh Kute, head of geospatial, SAAR IT Resources.

“We have the data of a lot of cities. We all know Bengaluru as the green city. If the tree census of these newly added 34 villages is done then Pune will surpass Bangalore,” Kute said.

Experts cite many reasons behind Pune’s leap in the number of trees that exist in the city.

“Punekars are more aware now. We conduct a lot of tree plantation drives across the hills in Pune. We emphasize the plantations of diverse tree species. We are preparing a budget proposal for the 2020-2021. We aim to complete the tree census of these newly included villages as soon as possible,” said Sandip Kale, nominated member of Vruksha Pradhikaran, PMC

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