23 March,2017 10:10 AM IST | | Laxman Singh
BMC's tree census claims Mumbai now has 26.36 lakh trees; Aarey Colony was included in it for the first time
BMC has used GPS and GIS systems for the census.
After a two-year delay, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation's (BMC) hi-tech tree census is finally coming to a close. The survey has recorded an increase of 7 lakh trees since the last census.
Using GPS and GIS
The civic body has used the Global Positioning System (GPS) and Geographical Information System (GIS) for the census, which has revealed that the city has 26.36 lakh trees, up from 19.17 lakh in the 2008 census.
According to the preliminary numbers, the highest number of trees is in the wards P-North (Malad), which has 2.8 lakh trees, and K-East (Andheri) that has 1.7 lakh.
The preliminary data also throws up some unknown facts about the city's green cover.
There are a total of 340 species of trees in Mumbai, out of which 140 species are endangered. Areas where the rare trees were found during the survey include Mumbai University, Jijamata Udyan and the Colaba Woods garden. This is the first time that the green cover in Aarey Milk Colony has been counted in the census. As per the survey, the area has 4.86 lakh trees. The surveyors found 240 species of trees in the colony.
Numbers seem dodgy
Environmentalist Stalin D said, "Aarey is a natural forest with almost 5 lakh trees. BMC did not conduct any survey in the past six decades for the trees in Aarey. Now they are adding this huge number from the last green lung of Mumbai and covering up losses of other urban areas. If you exclude Aarey, you will see that the tree cover had rapidly decreased. In fact, more than 2,000 trees died due to concretisation and various projects."
