Going Green! Tree-naming ceremony to be held at Subhash Park today

KOCHI: There was a time when the 'Queen of Arabian Sea' was enveloped in green patches. But, the aspirations to grow into a bigger city cost Kochi its greenery. Amidst the shrinking green lungs of the city, the Kochi Corporation is on a mission to regain the lost wealth by spreading the importance of environment conservation among the public. 

INTERACT-Bio, the biodiversity management project launched six months ago, is one of the major such projects taken up by the municipal body. The initiative is funded by the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), Germany, under its International Climate Initiative (IKI). 

The project, currently focusing on pilot studies in and around Kochi, has set biodiversity conservation as its prime objective. So far, numerous bio-diversity awareness classes have been organised at schools under the project. The South Asia chapter of International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), the implementing agency of the project in India, is executing the plans in partnership with the Centre for Heritage, Environment and Development (C-Hed).

As part of the initiative, a tree-naming ceremony will be held at Subhash Bose Park on Wednesday at 6 pm. A handbook of in-depth information about the trees will also be released. "There are many trees planted over the years at Subhash Park. But most of the Kochiites hardly know their name. This project aims to create awareness among them by detailing the scientific names and family species of each tree," said a Corporation official. 

Rtd. Justice Sukumaran will unveil the handbook. "The book will be distributed across all the schools under the Corporation limits besides iving them to the visitors of Subhash Park," she added. 
Mayor Soumini Jain will chair the event and ICLEI South Asia executive director Emani Kumar will be the chief guest. Deputy Mayor T J Vinod will elaborate the council's plan for the park development. 
The project currently being implemented in Brazil and Tanzania apart from India has a duration of four years from 2016 to 2020. Other than Kochi, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has chosen Panaji and Mangaluru for the project.

Earlier, the council has announced numerous proposals in the Corporation budget to fuel efforts to make the city greener. Apart from the clean air Kochi project, initiatives like carbon credit city, city biodiversity index, a feasibility study for mangrove park, biodiversity garden, environmental information system and the formation of a special squad for planting new trees and pruning big trees are on the anvil.