Delhi: Flora, forests
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Demarcation of forest areas
The Ridge
From: Jasjeev Gandhiok, Forest or not? No one knows the status in 10 out of 14 villages in southern ridge, February 15, 2018: The Times of India
While the National Green Tribunal has given a month’s time for the southern ridge to be demarcated completely, sources said the process to demarcate all fourteen villages may be completed only by the end of this year.
The revenue department began work on demarcating the southern ridge in August last year and only four villages — Rajokri, Ayanagar, Jaunapur and Ghitorni — have been handed over so far. The remaining 10 villages are currently being mapped and each village is likely to take close to a month to complete.
In 1996, Supreme Court had ordered protection of the Delhi ridge from encroachment. However till date, it has not been notified officially. While in 2014, the forest department had carried out its own survey and made digitised maps of the ridge, the revenue department had argued that these maps did not tally with their maps — thus making it difficult to identify encroachments. Forest officials say the demarcation will now ensure the ridge does not face any more encroachments in the future.
“Several cases in the NGT were stuck earlier as it was difficult to tell which parts had been encroached as we had no clear map. A house could be in the ridge according to one map or outside according to an older map. Thus, it was impossible to remove encroachments. Once this process is complete, we can fence these areas and drive out encroachers,” said a senior forest department official.
Sources said for the demarcated villages, fencing work is likely to begin soon following which they will be notified. According to the 1996 notification of the Delhi government, the 14 villages that fall under the southern ridge include Neb Sarai, Chhatarpur, Maidan Garhi, Dera Mandi, Asola, Pul Prahladpur, Devli, Rangpuri, Aya Nagar, Rajokri, Bhati, Ghitorni, Saidulajab and Jaunapur.
Teams from the forest and revenue department are mapping each village using a total station method, which tags the latitude and longitude, allowing officials to fence the area later. The department can then determine and remove any encroachments falling under it, a forest official added.
Forest cover
2001-2013
See graphic, 2001-2013: Delhi's forest area
2014-15: A Slight increase
The Times of India, Dec 05 2015
Slight increase in capital's forest cover The state of forest report 2015 shows that Delhi's cover has improved, but marginally . In terms of area, the increase is of about 9 sq km, making the total forest area about 20.29%. In the very dense forest category , there is an improvement of about 0.18% but there is a loss of about 0.71% in scrub forest which may be reflecting loss from Delhi Ridge.In the moderately dense fo rest category , there is an improvement of about 7.7% compared to the 2013, said the Survey of India report. There is also a reduction of about 8.5% in non-forest areas.
Forest department officials claimed it was a result of their sustained efforts. “Despite criticism and being labelled as a hindrance to development projects, we have proved our mettle,“ said an official. Experts, however, raised concerns about the decline in scrub cover.
==Forests in the NCR, district-wise, 2015==
See graphic, Protected forests in the NCR, district-wise, 2015
2017: cover is up 0.3% since 2015
From: Delhi’s forest cover is up 0.3% since 2015 but it’s nothing to cheer about, February 13, 2018: The Times of India
Dense Forests Have Recorded A Decline; Increase Only In Open, Scrub Forest Categories
Delhi’s forest cover has increased by 0.3%, or 3.6 sq km, compared to the assessments conducted in 2015, according to the State of the Forest Report 2017, which was released on Monday. But there is little to cheer about. The increase is only in the open and scrub forest categories whereas both very dense and moderately dense forests have recorded a decline.
The assessment by the Forest Survey of India emphasises Delhi is losing its dense, bio-diverse forests over the years even as plantations account for a minor improvement in the total forest cover.
As far as tree cover is concerned — sparse vegetation along roads or small-scale plantations — Delhi has the second-highest tree cover as a percentage of the total geographical area among states (see graphic). In this respect, Goa tops the chart. As far as forest cover is concerned, Delhi has lost about 0.2 sq km of very dense forest and 0.9 sq km of moderately dense forest since 2015. According to the report, the increase of 3.6 sq km observed in Delhi can be attributed to plantation activities and conservation whereas decrease in some areas could be because of developmental activities.
A senior forest official told TOI that the focus was on open areas this time around, instead of very dense forest (VDF) and moderately dense forest (MDF), which both came down slightly. “The overall increase in Delhi’s green cover is a good sign. Delhi’s green cover has increased from around 20.2% last time around to 20.6% this time. The fall in VDF and MDF areas could be due to development work, especially in the form of building roads, but the drop is not that significant,” the official said.
There is a 4.8 sq km increase in open forests and 0.7sq km in scrub forests.
There is another issue with FSI’s assessment of forest cover. According to forestry experts, the methodology for accounting forest cover doesn't differentiate between tree cover on agricultural land, plantations, urban parks and natural forests. The Forest Survey Of India defines forest cover to
be “all land more than one hectares in area, with tree canopy density of more than 10%, irrespective of ownership and legal status”. This definition could well mean that man-made forests are also counted as forests. In fact, the report clarifies that “occurrence of weeds like lantana in forest areas and agricultural crops like sugar cane, cotton, etc, adjacent to forest areas causes mixing of spectral signatures and often makes precise forest cover delineation difficult”.
The reduction in very dense and moderately dense forests in Delhi is all the more worrying because air pollution levels are extremely high in the capital — and getting worse. The carbon sequestration and pollution combating capacity of open forests is half or a third of that of dense, good quality forests, according to an earlier estimate by professor NH Ravindranath, a forestry expert from the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
Green cover
Decline: 1986-2015
The Times of India, Aug 30 2015
Overall decline in green cover since 1986: Study
A recent study on the city's green cover shows a disturbing trend. Delhi's vegetation has seen an overall decline since 1986.The green cover is also increasingly becoming fragmented, the study reveals.The highest fragmentation is being seen on the periphery where afforestation work is being conducted to compensate for the loss of trees to urban development projects. However, it is also only on the periphery that the green cover is increasing while the same is on the wane in the core and transitional areas. The study by Ashoka Trust for Research in Ecology and Environment (ATREE), Manipal Academy of Higher Education and Azim Premji University , highlights that though vegetation is increasing on the periphery, rapid urbanization and expanding real estate business could put this in danger. “Farm lands, wetlands, open spaces and trees on the periphery have been rapidly converted into urban built-up areas. With this, the vegetated landscape of Delhi is becoming increasingly fragmented like Shenzen, Daqing and Mumbai“ the study states.
For instance, the green cover in Delhi's core area in 1986 was about 64.68%, but it reduced to about 43.98% in 2010. Vegetation in the transitional area was 25.32% which marginally reduced to 22.43% but the peripheral green cover increased from 13.22% in 1986 to 16.52% in 2010.
“My study shows that there is an overall decline in the green cover in the past 25 years and the vegetated landscape is increasingly becoming fragmented. But when we look at different zones, we find that the core has maximum vegetation but it is also declining since 1986. The transitional zone has lesser proportion of vegetation than the core area. Though there has been a slight increase in the green cover in this zone from 1986 to 1999, the period between 2000 and 2010 saw a steady decline,“ said Somajita Paul, co-author of the study , which was conducted using satellite images for all these years.
Fauna native to Delhi/ NCR
Native species
See graphic, Species native to Delhi/NCR
Native trees
See graphic, 'Brief list of selected native trees in Delhi'
