KATHMANDU – President Bidya Devi Bhandari has announced the next year as the tree plantation year and said timber, non-timber and fruit trees will be planted as part the government policy to increase greenery across the country.
The head-of-the-state said so on Friday while presenting the government’s policies and programs for the fiscal year 2019/20.
Nepal’s current forest coverage has been increased of late and stands at 44.74 percent (6,230,537 hectres) of the country’s total area.
At a time when the forest area has been shrinking day by day in the urban areas, the government’s policies and programs have stressed on planting trees in the city areas.
“Our aim is to make 10 percent greenery in the local level,” said Sindhu Dhungana, spokesperson at the Ministry of Forests and Environment, adding, “We emphasized on planting trees in urban areas as the forest area is decreasing day by day.”
According to the statistics of Department of Forest Research and Survey, there is only 2.2 percent (106 hectres) forest area in the Kathmandu Metropolitan City while Lalitpur Metropolitan City has 2 percent (71 hectres) forest cover.
Similarly, among the temporary headquarters of seven provinces, Biratnagar Metropolitan City of Province 1 and Janakpur Sub-Metropolitan City have absolute zero forest area.
Why greenery is becoming more important in urban areas?
The importance of ‘urban forest’ has been increasing gradually at a time when the forest area is decreasing in many local levels of urban areas and provincial capital.
Environmentalist Top Khatri said that the city’s cleanliness and sustainability have been connected with the greenery.
Sapling should be planted along the roads, public places and on the premises of the houses through the Urban Forest Development to make the environment clean, he said.
Many people said that the Kathmandu Valley has already been turned into a concrete city. Now, there is no alternative to make the city green.
Various surveys carried out in different time have shown that one-fourth of the pollution can be minimized if the city can be made green.
Around 1200 tress were felled down along the recently expanded Kalanki-Koteshwor road section under the Chakrapath Development Project of the Kathmandu Valley. The concerned authority is clueless about when and where to plant the trees.
It has been learnt that around 4000 trees were cut down in the last three years in the Kathmandu Valley.
According to the provision, 25 saplings should be planted for every tree that is cut down for the construction of any project.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli on the World Environment Day (June 5, 2018) had announced ‘One house, One tree’ campaign to promote greenery.
While announcing the ‘Clean Environment Mega Campaign-2075’, Minister for Forest and Environment Shakti Bahadur Basnet said that the project to make 10 percent greenery in the 753 local levels was forwarded to minimize the pollution.
“We are aiming to promote greenery in the open spaces of the city areas,” he said.
Tree plantation programs were organized separately in Kathmandu and Lalitpur as part of the same project.
Kathmandu Metropolitan City spokesperson Ishwor Dangol said that though the metropolis had targeted to plant 100,000 saplings in the current fiscal year, more than 5,000 saplings have already been planted. Saplings are planted mostly during rainy season in Nepal.
Dangol said that the trees will be planted on the footpath or in public places with the onset of the rainy season. “Our aim is to make Kathmandu clean and green city.”
Laltipur Metropolitan City has forwarded a project to construct eco-park in Pulchok Engineering College, in the compound of United Nations building and Jawalakhel.
Department of Forest and Soil Conservation has made public its plan to plant trees along the side of the roads from Bal Kumari to Kalanki from mid-July to mid-August.
Director General at the Department Ram Prasad Lamsal said that there is a plan to plant various species of plants aged three to five-year-old. “Trees will be planted in a distance of 6 meter in the nine kilometre road,” he said.
It is not a good idea to plant saplings of tall trees in Kathmandu as it an urban area, experts said.
