As the Greater Chennai Corporation is working on a target to create around 1,000 urban dense forests, plantation of saplingshave been completed at 12 locations, while works are underway at 11.

According to a Corporation official, the urban dense forests are being created using the Miyawaki method. Apart from the 23 locations, the civic body has already identified land to create six new urban forests.

“Of the 29 urban forests, six urban forests will come up in Manali zone. The Planting has been completed in one location and plantation is underway in another. New forests will come up at four locations in the north Chennai zone,” the official said.

The official added that close to one lakh saplings have been planted in those locations using the Miyawaki method, that allows the civic body to plant more trees in small portions of land.

Meanwhile, the civic body has completed four urban forests in Royapuram zone and plantation work is continuing in other locations in the zone. It may be noted that none of the urban forests, which has been completed or planned, is in Tondiarpet and Teynampet zones, due to non-availability of suitable space. Among the 29 dense forests, the civic body commenced plantation on a piece of land in Madambakkam, which is outside the Chennai Corporation limits but owned by the civic body.

In January 2020, the civic body started work on the first urban dense forest in the city by planning more than 2,000 saplings in a vacant space in Kotturpuram. As the vacant space was reclaimed from an encroacher of court orders, the civic body proposed to create urban forests to prevent further encroachments. “Following the success, it has been decided to create urban forests wherever the civic body has vacant land,” the official said.

Recently, Chennai Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said that the civic body has plans to create urban dense forest at around 1,000 locations to increase the green cover of the city.

Also, the civic body, along with the state health department, had planted tree saplings using Miyawaki method on open space available inside Omandurar Government Estate.