Ahmedabad tree census 2012 kicks off today

Amdavad’s most famous tree is made of stone, a photograph of Sidi Saiyed ni jali

Ahmedabad, 5 February, 2012

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation(AMC), Forest and Environment department and Botany department of Gujarat University will start Ahmedabad tree census 2012 from Sunday, 4 February. The last tree survey in city was held in 2005-06 but it was conducted through random counting method. It was more tree-counting survey rather than tree census. But this time the actual census will be prepared.

The tree census process will begin on 5 February and will continue on every Sunday till 26 February. The data collection task will be carried out on each Tuesday. The final report will be ready by April this year.

Rare trees and heritage trees will be photographed and recorded in special section. Trees with minimum 4.5 ft height and 10 cm plus thickness will be covered in census.

For preparation of counting, 64 green images are created ward wise with the help of BISAG and Google Earth.

Three different teams will be responsible for census. One team will cover the cantonment area, while another team will cover only green patches, the third team will look after rest of the areas.

While forest department will cover as many as 70 green patches, the Army will cover the cantonment area. Other areas are distributed in 64 wards and 153 blocks. Each block will have one coordinator and six tree volunteers.

All teams were trained on 29 January in Kushabhau Thackeray auditorium hall . A guidebook has been created by the experts for easy identification of various kinds of trees.

Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has urged the citizens of city to support the volunteers in their task of counting the trees.

The main motive of this exercise is to arrive at conclusion that exactly how many more trees this city is needing. Ideally the city should have 15% area allotted to green cover.