Gurugram chokes under depleting green cover

GURUGRAM: Once considered as a preferred destination by many people for shifting their residential address because of its green spaces, Gurugram today, according to official data, is choking under the depleting green cover.

According to the official data, while the green cover of Gurugram district is meagre 8 per cent while that of Gurugram city is only 3 per cent.

This green cover also includes the forest area of Aravallis that too in a recent report by Wildlife Institute of India is receding.

Even though the state forest department had targeted to enhance the green cover of the city to 10 per cent and subsequently 20 per cent in the coming years, it has not been able to meet its target. Ironically, Delhi has a much higher green cover than Gurugram.

More than 6,000 trees have been felled along the Delhi Jaipur Highway as there is construction of flyovers and underpasses at the busy traffic intersections.

Earlier also, thousands of trees were cut when National Highway-8 was being converted into an expressway, way back in 2005.

The declining green cover over the years has also compounded challenges of falling ground water levels.

“Many of the old residents that used to stay along Aravallis will be able to recollect that there used to be a rich wildlife in the area. There used to be peacocks, rabbits and various varieties of birds. All this are rarely to be seen. Further the natural aquifers have further reduced,” said Amina Sherwani, a city based environmentalist.

While efforts were initiated to enhance the green cover at the community level, the last mass scale plantation at public level was done in 2010 by Municipal Corporation of Gurugram in its bio-diversity park.