E-Paper
Departments default in providing geo-tagged location of plantation sites even as govt’s September 15 deadline over
Ghaziabad: Divisional forest department officials on Thursday said they are yet to receive a full list of geo-tagged plantation sites in Ghaziabad after the UP government
Ghaziabad: Divisional forest department officials on Thursday said they are yet to receive a full list of geo-tagged plantation sites in Ghaziabad after the UP government had, last month, announced a drive aiming to plant 22 crore trees, as part of which Ghaziabad district was given a target of planting 815,725 trees.
Officials said they have only received a list of about 82.19% completion of geo-tagging of different sites even as the state government’s deadline ended on September 15. According to the officials the district had about 949 different sites where plantations were taken up by 26 different government departments.
“The state government had given a deadline September 15 for departments to geo-tag sites where the plantations took place. We have not received any extension date. The first inspection of the plantation was to start in September by agencies like Forest Survey of India or other remote sensing agencies. But before this, all geo-tagging was to be completed,” said Deeksha Bhandari, divisional forest officer.
“The third-party agencies will take random samples. Initially, they will take up satellite mapping and random inspections at the sites will take place later. But geo-tagging activity is still not complete in Ghaziabad. We have been writing to departments and have also informed the district magistrate about the same,” she added.
The forest and other departments on August 9 had planted about 9,57,517 trees, around 117% of their assigned target. The drive included plantation of large canopy trees like sheesham, jamun, imli, neem, peepal, banyan, etc in order to increase green cover.
“Without any inspection, there is no information on how the plantation is surviving. Their growth and survival can only be ascertained once the inspections begin. But it has been over 40 days and inspection is yet to begin,” said Akash Vashishtha, a city-based environmentalist and a lawyer.
According to officials the departments like Ghaziabad development authority, municipal corporation, animal husbandry and health departments among other completed the list of geo-tagging of their locations where the trees were planted.
“The departments which are yet to provide complete geo-tagged list of their plantation sites include the basic education department, district inspector of schools, electricity department and UP state industrial development corporation. The district magistrate has asked for their explanation about the delay,” an officer from the divisional forest department said.
District magistrate Dr Ajay Shankar Pandey could not be contacted despite repeated attempts.
