NOIDA/GHAZIABAD: The Gautam Budh Nagar administration has cited a miscalculation in the district’s geographical area to challenge a report by the Forest Survey of India that said the green cover had reduced from 2.5% in 2015 to 1.6% in 2017.
The district forest officer said the survey had left out at least 200sqkm in its report, which had effectively reduced the green cover.
“We permit the felling of only 1,500 trees and have set a record by planting over a lakh saplings. Such plantation activity is part of the forest department’s initiatives. The report by the
FSI is incorrect. This error has happened because the geographical area marked by the survey is 1,282sqkm, while the actual area of the district is 1,442sqkm. This is a calculation mistake and we have recently informed the department about it,” district forest officer HV Girish said.
The forest department data released in 2017 showed that the green cover had reduced from 35sqkm in 2015 to 20sqkm two years later. The same report had also revealed a reduction in the forest cover in Ghaziabad.
The officer pointed out that Ghaziabad’s geographical area, too, had been shown as 1,179sqkm in the survey report while the actual area was 1,273sqkm.
“The entire report pertaining to these two districts will now have to be revised and corrected because there have been changes made to the limits of these districts by the state government over the years. Major changes have taken place in Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar’s dimensions. The calculations are based on wrong data,” Girish said.
The forest department official said an updated record of the district’s green cover would be revealed once the information sent by the department was collated. “Our target is to keep the district’s green cover intact or increase it. Permissions for tree cutting are restricted,” Girish said.
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