Greening Delhi
COMPILED BY NIMI KURIAN
Photo : V.V. Krishnan
Avenue trees : Tough battle for survival.
The municipal replantation drive to maintain the tree-lined look of central Delhi's grand avenues is struggling. The reasons: theft and vandalism.
According to the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), between 150 and 200 trees in the area have fallen each year over the past five years, mainly due to storms and drying up. The NDMC's attempts to replace these have failed because of “tree thieves”.
People pluck the neem saplings to use them as toothbrushes. Also, the bark of full-grown trees such as the arjun is peeled off because of its medicinal value.
Of the 95,000 trees in the NDMC area, 10,000 are old ‘avenue trees'. These were planted after 1911, when the capital of the British Empire moved from Calcutta to Delhi, and Edwin Lutyens planned the new city.
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