Delhi Planted 82 Lakh Saplings in 2023: Economic Survey

New Delhi, Mar 1 (PTI) The Delhi government's Department of Forests and Wildlife planted over 82 lakh saplings in 2023, according to the city's Economic Survey.

Finance minister Atishi presented the city's Economic Survey in the Delhi Assembly on Friday.

According to the report, the department, along with other greening agencies, has planted 82.13 lakh saplings, including plantation of 14.67 lakh trees, 56.53 lakh shrubs and 3.22 lakh bamboos and distribution of 7.71 lakh seedlings, to general public of Delhi against the plantation and distribution target of 52.59 lakh saplings during 2023-24 (till December, 2023).

The forest and tree cover area in the national capital has increased to 342 square km in 2021, while it was 324.44 square km in 2019, the report said, adding that Delhi has the second-highest tree cover at a percentage (9.91 per cent) of the total geographical area of the states/UTs after Chandigarh (13.16 per cent), it said.

The city has a complex urban environment with respect to air pollution and faces severe air pollution of PM10, PM2.5 and NO2, the report stated.

The peak of PM10 was recorded on May 16, 2023, when the concentration of PM10 reached up to 812µg/m³. However, PM2.5 reached up to 137µg/m³ on the same day, it said.

To control local sources of air pollution at source, 13 hotspots have been identified on the basis of annual concentration of PM2.5 and PM10 in Delhi, it said.

Department of Environment and Delhi Pollution Control Committee has inventoried 4,555 pollution sources at 13 hotspots and issues/complaints raised have been on-boarded on Green Delhi app for enabling online redressal by concerned departments and monitoring, it stated.

The PWD was directed to allocate 200 anti-mobile smog guns (ASGs) at all 13 hotspots for dust pollution control. District coordinators were appointed in 11 districts by Chief Secretary Delhi on October 13, 2023 for mitigation of air pollution in Delhi with special focus on hotspots during the winters, the report said.

For immediate action in compliance to CAQM direction under GRAP as per AQI, with approval of Delhi Lieutenant Governor, directions under section 5 of Environment (Protection) Act were issued on November 23, 2023, it stated.

In order to address the challenges of climate change, the Delhi government has finalised the Delhi Climate Change Action Plan, which is aligned with the national action plan on climate change, it stated.