Will provide plants for free at people's doorstep: Gopal Rai

New Delhi: The Delhi government plans to provide small plants and pots free of cost at people's doorstep to enhance the green cover in the national capital, Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday. He told PTI, in an interview, that a team is being set up to identify plant species that have a high mortality rate after transplantation, and to ascertain the impact of soil type and other factors on the translocated trees in a bid to improve their survival rate. According to the latest India State of Forest Report, Delhi's green cover has increased from 21.88 per cent to 23.06 per cent of its geographical area. However, Rai said the government is planning alternative models such as urban farming to improve the green cover as Delhi will hit the saturation point at some point.

"The forest department and the Municipal Corporation of Delhi are going to launch a pilot project to provide plants and pots free of cost to people at their doorsteps. "We are conducting a ward-wise survey, asking people what type of plants they want. A survey is underway in one ward in my assembly constituency (Babarpur in northeast Delhi)," he said.

Each ward in Delhi has around 10,000 houses. Further plans to provide plants and pots to people in other areas will be made accordingly, Rai said, adding "we will be able to create an alternative green belt if the project becomes successful".

According to biodiversity experts, small plants are easy to maintain and require fewer resources than larger ones. This makes smaller plants a more sustainable choice for increasing green cover in certain areas, they said. The Delhi environment minister said a few species have a very poor survival rate, and the soil type in some areas does not suit tree transplantation. "A team is being formed to identify trees that have a dismal survival rate after transplantation. The forest department has been directed to ascertain the impact of soil type on the survival rate of the transplanted trees," he said.

"Our action plan to fight air pollution will be based on the inputs provided by the real-time source apportionment study," he said. The Delhi government will launch a 16-point action plan to curb pollution in the summer season this month. Rai also acknowledged that efforts to curb dust pollution have improved in the national capital region (NCR) areas of the neighbouring states. "Several studies show that around 69 per cent of the air pollution in Delhi comes from outside its boundaries... Certainly, the neighbouring states have had a role in reducing air pollution in the national capital, but more measures need to be taken," he said. Rai suggested that Delhi's neighbouring states set up a committee to look into the problem of air pollution in the NCR areas as "top officials sitting far away from NCR -- in Lucknow and Chandigarh -- are unable to feel the urgency to resolve the problem".