Gautam Budh Nagar has only three trees over 100 years old, says forest dept

Noida: It seems that the rapid urbanisation has taken its toll on the old tree cover in Gautam Budh Nagar, as the district is left with only three trees which are over 100 years old and qualify for ‘heritage’ tag, finds out the forest department in a year-long quest

Noida: It seems that the rapid urbanisation has taken its toll on the old tree cover in Gautam Budh Nagar, as the district is left with only three trees which are over 100 years old and qualify for ‘heritage’ tag, finds out the forest department in a year-long quest.

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The Uttar Pradesh government in May 2020 had ordered the forest department to recognise all trees which are 100 years or older to protect them as ‘heritage’ trees. Under this tag, the trees are to be notified, protected and not allowed to fell in any circumstances, forest department officials said.

However, after searching the region since May last year, the officials said that only three trees could be found in the entire district — one in Noida’s Okhla Bird Sanctuary and two at Maripat railway station in Greater Noida.

“Based on the old records and information from the local villagers, we found the three trees which are over 100 years old. Though we are still searching, it seems that a lot of developmental work through all these years has taken a toll on some of the rare trees in the region,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, GB Nagar.

The three trees include a banyan tree (Ficus benghalensis) at the Okhla Bird Sanctuary that has a girth of 883.9 cm, the second is also a banyan tree at Maripat railway station near Achheja village in Greater Noida with a girth of 800 cm, and the third a peepal tree (Ficus religiosa) that has a circumference of 600 cm.

The officials said that the three trees have been proposed to be titled as heritage trees. “We have initiated the process of declaring them as heritage trees for future protection. For that, there would be a sign board installed by the tree declaring it so, a sample bark to be kept as record and the tree shall be protected and never allowed to be felled,” Srivastava added.

Of its total geographical area of 1,282 sq km, GB Nagar has 19.99 sq km (1.56%) under green cover. The district has a total of five moderate dense forests (70%-40% density), while 15 are open forests (39%-10% density), as per data from the district forest department.

Environmentalists say that the forest department needs to look deeper, believing that there could be more.

“Years back, I was told that there are only seven wetlands in the district. Later, I myself found 750 wetlands in the district. The forest department officials for some reason are not looking deeper, but they need to do more fieldwork as there are many old trees. The department should involve better research,” said Anand Arya, a city-based environmentalist.

Vikrant Tongad, another environmentalist, said that there had been a lot of felling of trees in the district that had our greenery compromised. “However, I believe that there would be more heritage trees and perhaps forest department is not doing enough work to cover more area,” he said.