Even as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is yet to release an official count of the number of trees in the city, its estimate of 35 lakh has set the alarm bells ringing.
Evenu00a0as the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is yet to release an official count of the number of trees in the city, its estimate of 35 lakh has set the alarm bells ringing.u00a0The civic body had allocated Rs 1 crore from its annual budget for 2009-2010 to conduct a tree censusu00a0-- to be conducted by Lotus Environments -- but the work that started in 2009 and was expected to be complete by March 2011 is still pending. 
Sylvan dreams: The PMC says 75 per cent of the work on tree census
has been completed. file pic
Dr Ramesh Godbole of Nisargsevak, an NGO working for the environment for the last 25 years, said that for every person, there should be at least seven trees. "Going by that estimation, the city may require at least 3.36 crore trees for its population of 42 lakh, which is eight times the existing population of trees," he said.u00a0
Bhanudas Mane, former tree officer, PMC, said currently, the city had about 35 lakh of trees, comprising 250 species.
Nisargasevak has planted over 5,000 trees at Kothrud and Paud Road area as part of its ambitious project 'Smritivan'. "There should be more such 'Smritivans' in and around the city, which could work as green lungs," said Godbole. "Smritivan has many desi trees including neem, banyan, peepal, sandalwood, rain trees, silver oak, mast tree, jamun, laburnum, among others. The city also requires wild trees."
Hrishikesh Talwalkar, president of Aranyawak, an NGO, said the civic body should also inspect the areas under green cover. "The green cover in the city is dwindling because of industrial and vehicular pollution," he said.
Mahendra Ghogare, who had distributed 10,000 sandalwood saplings in all the state prisons, said that sandalwood that was generally found in forests was good investment as it released sizable amount of oxygen.
"To inculcate the habit of tree plantation, I have distributed two lakh sandal wood saplings in the state. The PMC should conduct the tree census carefully and focus on its efforts to plant more trees every year," he said.
The Other Side
Narendra Zurmure, chief garden superintendent, PMC, said that 75 per cent of the work on tree census works was completed. He said Lotus Communication, which undertook the task two years ago, was hard-pressed for staff. "We agree the city requires more trees, and the PMC is organising many tree plantation programmes in the monsoon," Zurmure said.
The right ratio
IN a healthy society, the population of trees should be seven times more than the human population. The reason is that every individual inhales 27,000 times a day and consumes a total of 15kg of oxygen. On the other hand, seven trees exhale 15 kg of oxygen per day. Based on this calculation, the city requires more than 3 crore of trees.
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