City forests to come up in Haryana municipal limits
KARNAL: Haryana is all set to develop a city forest in each of the nine municipal corporation ( MC) limits to serve as green lungs for the urban localities.
Principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) SS Jattan on Friday said that the municipal authorities have been asked to identify city land of area between 20 to 300 hectares to develop thick green covers.
“Under the union government’s smart city development plan, it is proposed that each municipal corporation should have an open space in its jurisdiction to develop a city forest. Only those species of plants that can easily adapt to local environment like neem, arjun, acacia (kikar), sheesham, medicinal and ornamental trees would be planted in the city forests,” said Jattan.
He said that community participation would play a key role in making the project successful.
“Once MC authorities identify spots for city forests, we will encourage local residents to plant saplings. Community lead- ers and volunteers will be roped in to form local committees to manage these city forests,” said Jattan while clarifying that department of forest, local urban bodies and district authorities would continue supporting the project.
So far, only the Gurgaon MC has identified an area of more than 125 acres near the biodiversity park and it is being evaluated by the authorities for the project.
“In Rohtak, it has been proposed that an open space at Maharashi Dayanand University (MDU) could be used to develop a forest cover and we are the in process of studying its feasibility.
In Kar nal, there are five research institutes of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research ( ICAR) that may be used for city forests if the institutes agree,” said the principal chief conservator of forests. In case a state or central institute offers a minimum of 20 hectares of land to develop a city forest, the land and trees would be the sole property of the institute and the state gover nment would play no role it except to facilitate a thick cover of vegetation on it.