IFS officer in Ranchi dons environmentalist’s hat, starts green campaign

RANCHI: An Indian Forest Service official has launched a ‘My Ranchi-My Responsibility’ campaign, which aims at planting saplings across the state capital with the help of NGOs and the common people.
Siddharth Tripathi, who has worked in the state bureaucracy for several years now, was perturbed by a survey which revealed that 53 wards under the Ranchi Municipal Corporation’s limits have lost around 95% greenery in the last 15 years, which prompted him to take up the initiative.
Tripathi said, “When I saw the satellite map of Ranchi a year ago I was shocked to see the depletion of greeneries. As the Forest Survey of India does not conduct a survey for municipal limits, I, along with a few experts, decided to do one on my own to calculate the loss. We took the help of Geographic Information System and analysed the data between 2004 and the ongoing year and we were shocked to find that in most of the wards the greenery has shrunk between 50% and 95%.”
He added, “Today, when you travel from Albert Ekka Chowk to the over-bridge on Main road you cannot even find a single tree. But in the 2000s, Ranchi used to be covered with trees, as per the data we studied. Now, a few wards are left with a mere 10% of greenery. For instance, the satellite maps of areas like Lalpur, Albert Ekka Chowk and Sadar Hospital showed that these areas used to be lush green during 2004 but now they don’t have trees.”
When asked about the probable reasons behind the depletion of greenery, Tripathi said: “We came across several factors which include the rapid urbanization without proper planning for open spaces and commercialization of private lands, among others. To put it in a nutshell, we can say that greenery was sacrificed in the last-one- and-a-half decade at the behest urbanisation.”
In a bid to encourage more and more people to participate in his campaign, Tripathi has held several rounds of discussions with vice-chancellors, principals of both schools and colleges, trade bodies, doctors’ associations and NGOs like Rotary and Lions International and according to him, everyone has decided to take part in it.
“We have constituted a core committee for all the 53 wards consisting of ward members. From July 4, we will conduct meetings every Sunday and in the first phase, we will plant saplings at places like schools, colleges, residential buildings and parks,” Tripathi said, adding, “Citizens’ participation is one of the key elements of this campaign and the core committee has decided to run it for the next five years.”
“We aren’t asking for any support from the government as people are ready to make their city green by themselves. I have been told during my earlier meetings that everyone wants their city to be green it’s just that they do not know how to do it. I hope with everyone’s participation, we will be able to make Ranchi green again,” he said.