Bhubaneswar: With the number of trees planted by the civic authorities in the Capital city dwindling year-on-year, experts have raised concern over the resulting environmental impact and potential degradation in the air quality due to depleting greenery.
According to a report by the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC), while 9,700 avenue and institutional tree saplings were planted in 2006 alone, only 8,846 trees were planted in the city in past five years.
“Bhubaneswar features in one among the few cities in the country that boast of high green cover. However, this has been not the case lately. Massive urbanisation has resulted in the spaces for trees being compromised,” said environmentalist Prasanna Dash.
“Trees have a key role in reducing smog and emissions in cities. Many urban centres fighting pollution for decades have focused largely on tree plantation, which not only helps to improve air quality, but also to fight climate change,” he explained.
The decrease in tree plantations has resulted in decline in air quality of the city. As per the Air Quality Index (AQI), a score recorded between 0 and 50 is termed good, while 50-100 rated moderate, and 100-200 is unhealthy. Anything about 300 is hazardous. While the city had an average score of 45 between 2006 and 2014, it increased to 70 in last 3 years.
The World Health Organisation, in a report last year, stated that around 7 million people die each year due to exposure to fine particles that are suspended in polluted air. The report also mentioned that 90 per cent of air pollution-related deaths occur in low and middle-income countries, mainly in Asia and Africa followed by Europe and South American nations.
A source at the BMC revealed that the civic authority largely relies only on ward corporator’s input for planting tree saplings in an area and it has resulted in such low figures. The maintenance and upkeep of the plants is also often neglected.
“Each year, ward councilors identify locations for tree plantation and report to the BMC and in case there is lack of space or a clash with other authorities such as the Forest Development Corporation or a development project, the idea of plantation is given less priority,” said source.
Responding to this, BMC environment officer Kapilendra Sethi stated, “The city’s greenery is always given top priority. Last year we have planted 3,000 tree saplings along with 1,000 tree guards in the BMC areas. We have plans to double the number this year. About 95% of these survive and causality replacement is done for those that don’t.”
