Govt to focus on urban forests in its 100-day agenda

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MoEFCC) plans to promote urban biodiversity to mitigate pollution, provide cleaner air, reduce noise, and harvest water, the official added. Further, pointing out that biodiversity will help issues such as spiralling mosquito population and monkeys moving into cities due to lack of green spaces, the official also noted that water conservation and crop production are other concern areas that can be addressed with urban forests. “If you look especially at South Delhi, the water table is depleting faster and many plants are needed to restore greenery," the person said.

“For agriculture, in rural peripherals and suburban areas, there are pollination issues. If there are not enough pollinators such as bees, wasps and small mammals for cultivating crops, including horticulture crops like brinjal and okra, the crop production will be less. Around 25% of crop production is lost due to lack of enough pollinators," he added.

Queries sent to the spokesperson and secretary of MoEFCC remained unanswered at press time. Launched in 2020, NVY looks to create nagar vans (urban forests) by involving local communities, NGOs, educational institutions, local bodies, etc. The scheme envisages creating 1,000 such forests in cities having a municipal corporation, municipal council or urban local bodies to transform India's cities into clean, green, healthy and sustainable areas.