Student volunteers of 23 educational institutions, including Loyola College, Presidency College and Pachaiyappa's College, Queen Mary's College and Stella Mary's College for women, 200 'green force' volunteers and NGOs will be involved in the project. The volunteers will be provided with census survey forms. At the end, the completed forms with a summary for each institution/ward will be compiled to develop a database . The data will be superimposed on a GIS maps for future planning of afforestation.
Launching the programme at a function in Velachery , additional principal chief conservator of forests K S Neelakantan said: "Chennai is the first metropolitan city in the country to conduct a tree census." Neelakantan, who released a booklet on the common trees of the Tamil Nadu capital on the occasion, sought the help of non-government organisations in the ambitious programme. "The green cover in the city remains at 4%, while the state has 19.65% of forest cover. Forests have to be preserved to combat desertification ," he said. Read the full report here.
Source: Times News Network, Chennai.
