Pune losing its green cover to slums: Environment Status Report (ESR)

PUNE: Pune city is losing its green cover, thanks to the increasing number of slums and conversion of agriculture land into non agriculture for construction purpose. The issue of impact on gree cover has been highlighted in the latest Environment Status Report (ESR) of Pune Municipal Corporation.
The ESR has also mentioned that out of 14 ward offices which covers entire Pune, only five ward offices have better green cover compare to the human population of that area. The ESR was recently tabled at the general body meeting of PMC on Monday.
While covering the topics like human population, water, solid waste management, air pollution, noise pollution, in the city in the ESR, the report has a special section for the green cover of the city. In the report, the PMC officials have stated that the slums in the city are increasing and they are mostly encroaching the hill areas of the city. Apart from that the agriculture land in and around Pune city is being converted into non agriculture sector for constructing housing and commercial societies due to which the green cover of the city is decreasing.
The number of trees that the ESR is showing is on the basis of tree census that the PMC had carried out in 2012, however the report does not have a mention of the number of trees in the year 2013. According to the report, Pune city has total of 38,60,055 trees compare to the human population of 31.24 lakh.
The ESR also has the comparison of the tree cover in various ward offices with the human population. According to the report, area of Aundh has three times more green cover compare to the human population staying in that area. However apart from Aundh area, the situation of number of trees compare to human population is not looking good. Out of total 14 ward offices of PMC, only five ward offices namely Aundh, Warje-Karvenagar, Ghole road, Yerwada and Sahakarnagar have more trees compare to the human population of that area. In rest of the ward offices, human population is more than the tree cover.
When contacted PMC officials they said that based on Bombay High court's order, the civic administration is working on carrying out tree census with the help of Geographical Information System (GIS) and Global Positioning System (GPS) so that we will get actual location and details of each tree and it will be easier to keep watch on illegal tree cutting.