The forest cover assessment was arrived at by FSI, a premier organization under the Ministry of Environment and Forests, to monitor forest resources of the country, with the help of satellite imagery and ground truthing.
Surat district forest officer (DFO) Puneet Nayyar said, “Surat has not only been able to retain its forest cover but was able to regenerate it in some parts of the dense forests.”
Afforestation work for past two years in south Gujarat has proved to be beneficial. Plantations, both within and outside the forest area due to conservation and expansion of mangroves by the FSI, had led to increase in the forest cover. This is reflective in the figures which show that the forest area has seen an increase by 1 sq km each in Valsad, Dang and Tapi and 2 sq km in Navsari district.
In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area in Gujarat, south Gujarat tops. Here, 78% area in Dang district is covered by forest. The forest cover percentage of Valsad is 31.2, Tapi 25.8, Narmada 34.2, Navsari 13.4 and Surat 11.3.
According to the last tree censuses conducted in 2013, Surat district had 14 lakh trees with the city alone accounting for 3.48 lakh trees. The existing tree cover is considered insufficient as the ideal ratio is one tree per three persons.
Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) claims to have planted at least 8 lakh saplings in areas under its limits in the past five years. If survival rate for saplings is 50%, then there ought to be an additional 4 lakh trees in the city when the next tree census is conducted by the FSI in 2019.
by via Surat News, Latest Surat News Headlines & Live Updates - Times of India
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