Delhi Common Wealth Games 2010 Mini forest to come up at ITO chungi

 

Delhi Common Wealth Games 2010  Mini forest to come up at ITO chungi

Rumu Banerjee, TNN, Jul 9, 2010, 04.49am IST

NEW DELHI: It's the first mini-forest within the city and you can thank the Commonwealth Games 2010 for it.
The Delhi government is greening the ITO Chungi with over 8,000 trees for the Games the first such large concentration of greens in Delhi outside a city forest. The greening initiative will see the forest department plant both ornamental and native trees around the five loops along ITO Chungi as well as bamboo trees along the verges (identified as parts by the forest department). Around 3,000 bamboo trees of different species are planned to be planted.
The greening of the area, spread over 30 acres, is expected to go a long way towards compensating the large-scale cutting of trees that had taken place on the Yamuna riverbed when ITO Chungi came up. The area, which is being described as an urban forest, will be planted not only with native trees but also marigold shrubs, so as to highlight the ornamental aspect as well. Said KK Sharma, principal secretary (PWD), "We've been looking at greening flyovers, specially those with loops, as they are built over a large area. For this project, we had asked the consultants to suggest a substantial green cover as the diameter is quite big (at ITO Chungi).'' According to Sharma, the consultants suggested an urban forest, which was implemented by the forest department thereafter.
The plans are certainly ambitious. Senior forest department officials explained that while the loops would have 1,000 trees each, planted in concentric circles, the verges would be planted with bamboo trees. "The first ring in the loops would be a row of mixed trees trumpet tree, washingtonia, lagerestroemia. The next row would be of one type of tree amaltas, baheta, sheesham, jamun, neem, pilkhan, bakain, semal, arjun,'' said the official. The bamboo borders along the verges will be of three types yellow (vulgaris), green and the Buddha belly bamboo. Around 3,000 bamboo trees will be planted along the parts.
The good news is that work on the urban forest had started earlier in March this year. According to officials of the forest department, over 60% of the work has been completed so far. Said the official, "The length of the trees at present has been kept at 7-8 feet. These trees will take a little bit of time to grow and the full green effect will be visible only after the monsoon.''
The greening comes at a time when the government has been much criticized for the rampant mowing down of trees in the name of development for the upcoming Delhi Games 2010. While many trees were cut during the construction of ITO Chungi, around 700 were cut during construction at Siri Fort sports complex. A few hundred were also cut at Delhi University, again for the Games.