Delhi-NCR under smog blanket, AQI remains in ‘severe’ category
Delhi-NCR woke up to a thick blanket of smog on Wednesday as air quality remained in the ‘severe’ category for the third consecutive day as the cold gripped the region.
Delhi is becoming greener day by day, said Gopal Rai, Delhi Environment Minister adding that the tree cover has increased by 18 sq km.
Rai said that the green cover of Delhi has increased from 21.88% to 23.06% of its geographical area in the last 2 years.
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“The Delhi Government is set to plant 33,00,000 saplings by March 2022,” informed Rai.
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“The Union Environment Minister released the State of Forest Report (SFR)- 2021 today. The report has been prepared by the Forest Survey of India, Union Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change. As per this report, Green Cover of Delhi has increased by almost 18 sq km in comparison to SFR 2019,” stated Rai
The tree cover of Delhi as per SFR 2019 was 129 sq km which has now increased to 147 sq km that means there is an increase of 18 sq km within 2 years.
The overall green cover (Forest cover + Tree cover) is now 342 sq km (as per SFR 2021) which was earlier 324.44 sq km. Thus, there is a net increment of 17.5 sq km in green cover. In terms of percentage, the Green cover of Delhi has increased from 21.88% to 23.06% of its geographical area in the last 2 years i.e. 2019-2021, he added.
Besides, there is also a slight increase in Moderate Dense Forest from 56.42 sq km in 2019 to 56.60 sq km in 2021.
There is no change in the Very Dense Forest (6.2 sq km). The Open forest which was 132.30 sq km in the year 2019 has now changed to 131.68 sq km, mentioned the environment minister.
Meanwhile, Delhi has become the first city to start a Tree Transplantation Policy where trees will be transplanted and at the same time be replaced by 10 new trees.
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