Survival rate of plants increases in Delhi sanctuary

After a disastrous decade of greening in the 4,845-acre Asola-Bhatti - the Capital's lone wildlife sanctuary - the survival rate of plants has shot up by a whopping 350 per cent.

This comes as a much-needed breather amid the air we breathe turning deadlier by the day, and cases of rampant deforestation being reported from across the city.

Only 20 per cent of the 12 lakh saplings planted in 10 years (2000-10) in the south Delhi sanctuary survived, a third-party survey commissioned by the Capital's forest department has revealed.

The survival rate for the plantation done in 2011-12 and 2012-13 has now gone up to 90 per cent, another third-party survey conducted in January and February this year has found. Plantation in the sanctuary will continue till 2017.

The firm counted all pits dug up for planting and observed the growth of all surviving plants. "As many as 89.71 per cent plants have survived. Species like Shisham and Neem have done particularly well," the report said.

Overall, Delhi's 20.08 per cent area or 297.81 sq km is green - up from 1.48 per cent or 22 sq km in 1993, according to a latest India State of Forest Report (ISFR).

From 2001 to 2009, Delhi nearly doubled its green cover (forests and trees outside forests) from 151 sq km to 299.58 sq km But after that, greening efforts failed to make much impact because of a mismatch between trees cut and saplings planted.

The forest department provides funds - roughly Rs 3 crore a year - and technical assistance to an Eco Task Force (ETF) of the Indian Army for plantation drives in the sanctuary.

In 2011-12 and 2012-13, the ETF planted 2,54,592 saplings of 59 species against a target of 2 lakh. The ETF has also achieved the main objective of controlling illegal mining and encroachment in the sanctuary, the report added. The report said the ETF has also achieved 100 per cent target of soil and moisture conservation works fixed by the forest department.

Because of excessive mining (that has now been stopped), the sanctuary is a badly degraded area. "There was no water. There was oxygen depletion. No life was possible. Our past efforts have changed the moisture regime and oxygen situation. It takes time to green such an area," forest department head Tarun Coomar told Mail Today.

As Delhi expanded in the 1990s, construction material was much in demand. Quartzite, found in abundance in the Asola-Bhatti area, was preferred over normal sand. Excessive mining of quartzite (Badarpur) rocks, both legal and otherwise, badly degraded the vast natural forest.

"Water level went down drastically leading to drying up of wells in the surrounding villages. Only bushes could be seen on brown and barren swathes of land. Mafia ensured illegal mining went on. The area was littered with 231 large and small mines. Illegal settlements could not be moved out," said an official.

A unit of Eco Task Force of the Territorial Army was raised on October 9, 2000 to rejuvenate the whole area. "Over the last decade, the ETF carried out plantation in 4,000 acres of land, turning the area greenish. Water bodies were created. The number of animal and bird species went up," said an ETF official.

Feeding monkeys

A greater survival of trees, many of them fruit-bearing, would offset an annual expenditure of lakhs of rupees on feeding 2,500 kg of fruits and vegetables and 100 kg of gram to 19,000 monkeys in Asola every day.

Following a 2007 High Court, corporations have been capturing monkeys from city areas and releasing them into the sanctuary. The court had asked the forest department to feed them but also grow fruit-bearing trees to offset the food bills.

However, mining does not pose the only damage to the sanctuary. Illegal farmhouses have wiped out about 500 acres of forestland in the sanctuary. Sanjay Colony is a case in point, as the 128-acre illegal settlement that houses as many as 40,000 people remains in the sanctuary despite eviction orders from courts.