Gurugram on a green mission: Soon, a bank of govt plots for plantation

GURUGRAM: With the aim of increasing green cover in the city outside of forest areas and to recharge groundwater, the district administration is planning to create a 'bank' of vacant plots for plantation activities.
Under its Gurujal initiative, it will also geo-tag each sapling and record its survival rate. This will also make the agency carrying out plantation drives accountable for the maintenance of the site, officials said.
Vacant plots in panchayat areas will be identified and recorded. The soil quality and prevalent flora of the identified areas and locations will also be recorded. Gurujal is an integrated water management initiative which aims to address the issues of water scarcity, groundwater depletion and flooding in the city.
"With the creation of a land bank, Gurugram will not have to identify a new plot of land every time a private or government agency plans to carry out a plantation drive. Also, the details of soil and preferred plants will be provided to the agency in order to make the drive more feasible. Soil quality and the knowledge about saplings are important while carrying out plantation. We will provide these technical details," said Subhi Kesarwani, a member of Gurujal.
This initiative has been taken as plantation drives in the city are often stuck because of unavailability of land. "We will put details on these sites on our website for the people to access," she added.
Gurugram lost 2.5sq km of forest cover between 2019 and 2020, according to a report by the Forest Survey of India.
The initiative will also help in improving the water table. The city has been perilously close to a water crisis since 2013, when it was categorised as "overexploited" by the Central Ground Water Authority. In the last 15 years, the average depth at which groundwater is available has almost doubled, underlining grave concerns on over extraction that have dogged the city for years without a solution being found to slow the trend, if not reverse it.
"An increase in green cover will help in recharging the groundwater. We want to make the system accountable for the maintenance of the site after plantation. After the drive, it will be the responsibility of the agency concerned to look after the saplings," she added.
Meanwhile, experts welcomed the move, saying it will help in gathering data on vacant plots which turn into illegal dump yards. "There are several areas which have turned into illegal garbage dumping spots in the city. This exercise will help them turn them into green spots," said Vaishali Chandra Rana, a city-based environmentalist.