To live up to green motto,CM to inaugurate Games forest in Aya Nagar

Dikshit will inaugurate the forest in Aya Nagar on Friday and plantations will also take place in three other city forests in West division,also likely to be called Commonwealth Forests.

Land for the Aya Nagar city forest spans 50 hectares,but has only recently been acquired. Around 15 hectares of the city forest have been under plantations since July this year,and it is this area which will be part of the Commonwealth Forest.

“This year,we have planted 16,000 saplings here of all indigenous species native to the Ridge. On Friday,too,the focus will be the same indigenous trees. Some of these species are ber,neem,varieties of bamboo,raunjh,bel,jamun and Acacia Nilotica,” said a senior official from the Forest department.

Officials from the Department of Environment said that the three other forests which are currently being developed in the West division in — Malikpur,Daruala,and Khurd — will also be christened Commonwealth Forests.

Efforts are on to ensure that these forests survive and have huge plantation drives under the aegis of the Games. Officials said that on Friday,tens of thousands of saplings were planted over the four forests.

The majority will be in Aya Nagar. With the Games being branded internationally as green event,there have been several tree plantations for the Games,but most have only been ceremonial.

Ambassador at large Shashi Tharoor kicked off a tree plantation at the lawns of Ashoka Hotel,and the NDMC is creating the Commonwealth Games Park at Ashoka Avenue. Meant to be symbolic of Commonwealth unity,saplings from each of the Commonwealth countries will be planted here. But several trees have also been felled for the Games —more than 10,000 trees have been cut to create stadia,infrastructure,the Delhi Metro and for widening roads.

In the past three years,close to 38,000 trees have been cut in Delhi. Several new city forests have actually emerged for compensatory plantation — ten trees to be planted as compensation for one tree cut. But with these being all new plantations,they cannot be counted as trees yet.

“It is unlikely that the Commonwealth Forest trees will be touched for development projects,” says the official.