Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli announced a mega campaign of ‘One House One Tree’ aimed at promoting greenery, on the occasion of World Environment Day on June 5.
At a program organized to announce ‘Nepal Clean Mega Campaign 2075’ with plans to maintain greenery in least 10 percent area of all 753 local units and control pollution, Minister for Forest Shakti Bahadur Basent said, “We have been aiming to promote greenery in the open spaces of the city.”
Though the country’s 44.74 percent of land is covered by forest (i.e. 6230,537 hectares of land), around 600 local units, including 13 in Province 1, 84 in Province 2, 9 in Province 5, do not have forest cover—not even in a single plot of half hectare.
Six hectares of land in Kathmandu Metropolitan City, has only 6 hectares of land covered with forest, which is only 2.2 percent of the total area, and Lalitpur Meropolitan has 71 hectares of land covered with forest, which is only 2 percent of its total area. This was the statistics provided by the department of research and survey.
Similarly, of all the temporary capital of the seven provinces, Biratnagar Metropolitan City, the capital of Province 1, and Janakpur, capital of Province 2, do not have forest.
The capital of Province 3, Hetauda Sub-Metropolitan City has 12,593 hectares of forest cover land—which is 48.3 percent, while the Pokhara Metropolitan City’s 19,484 hectares, which is 42 percent of the total, is covered with forest. Similarly, Bharatapur Metropolitan City has 15,700 hectares of forest land, which is 36.6 percent, and Butwal has 4958 hectors of forest land that is 48.9 percent of the total area.
In the same manner, Karnali Province capital Birendranagar has 14,498 hectares of land covered with forest—that is 59.5 percent and Province 7’s temporary capital Dhangadi sub-metropolitan city has 8,733 hectares of forest land, 33.6 percent of its total land.
Spokesperson at the Ministry of Forest and Environment Dhananjaya Poudel says the importance of “Urban Forest’ has become even more significant at a time when the forest cover is depleting in urban area. “The cleanliness and sustainability of the city is connected with greenery; we will work in coordination with all the local levels within the next one year so as to promote at least 10 percent greenery,” Poudel says.
He further says adds if the open spaces in public places such as roadside, junctions, monastery, church, temple, lake, school and private house compound could be planted with trees through Urban Forest Development, that would be a contribution for the environment adaptation.
The Forest Ministry, as part of its mega campaign, has appealed for promoting greenery by planting at one tree at every house, by building a model garden at a public place and plant trees at government offices, universities, temple and religious sites.
“The campaign will help in increasing trees and building a model garden so that the greenery will help in maintaining air temperature of the urban area and in controlling pollution,” said Poudel.
Around 1200 trees were cut at the 27-km long Ring Road of the Kathmandu as part of the road improvement project that started in 2013. But it is not certain when and where the trees will be planted.
Forest Research and Survey Department Deputy Director General, Dr Yagyanath Dahal, said there was a plan to plant trees in the island of the newly built Koteshwor-Kalanti stretch of the Ring Road. “But plantation couldn’t happen because dividers have been nicely placed at the road,” said Dahal.
Environmental expert Bhusan Tuladhar says the concerned government body has been reluctant to invest for promoting greenery in urban area. “Studies have shown that at least one-fourth of the pollution can be lessened by promoting urban greenery. But we are not giving the due priority to plant trees in open spaces such as roadside,” says Tuladhar.
He added that the urban forest area is necessary because they absorb water. Many areas in Kathmandu valley will be inundated after slightly heavy rains.
