Tree census may start from June

BENGALURU: The BBMP  forest cell has put in a fresh proposal for `5-6 crore for carrying out the first ever ‘Tree Census’ in Bengaluru. After the last three meetings they had with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), forest officials said they were hopeful of allocations, and that the census work would be taken up from June.

In 2016, the state government had allocated `4 crore for the census work, but the work never took off and the funds were returned.For the past three years, tree census in Bengaluru has been stalled due to lack of clarity on the policy and involvement of experts and NGOs.

However, in January, forest officials held a series of meetings with stakeholders to carry out massive tree counting work in the 198 wards of the city. Further, they explored ideas with a few NGOs to implement a software for the census work.

BBMP deputy conservator of forests, Cholarajappa, said, “We are very serious about the census work as the core trees in the city have to be identified before it is too late. We have put in a proposal for `5-6 crore considering the size of the city, which involves an area of 800 square kilometers and 198 wards. We are hoping to start the work from June as soon as the funds are allocated and tenders are called.”

Regarding the public volunteers for census work, the Deputy Conservator of Forests (DCF) said, “Since a lot of technical issues will be involved, it will not be possible to train the public. However, members of the Ward Committees will be involved. We need the help of experts and also to opt for a specific tree software that will be verified by the state government. Presently, the process is on to identify experts and we have also had demonstrations to see how the software works.”

Recently, BBMP had held talks with Project Vruksha who had demonstrated their software for mapping trees. They have done tree mapping in three wards of Bengaluru—Byrasandra, Jayanagar East and Pattabhiramnagar—in the last three years.