In a bid to preserve the tree cover of the City Beautiful and enable a layman to identify various types of tree species, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department would soon adopt a computer-assisted method.
The UT Department has roped in Dehradun-based Forest Research Institute (FRI) to develop a “digital database and tree identification software”.
This will be a one year project and FRI would develop visual recognition software to identify tree species from photographs and information of various trees’ characteristics.
While talking to The Pioneer, Kuldeep Sharma, UT Deputy Conservator of forests said, “A project to develop “digital database and tree identification software” for Chandigarh has been given to FRI, which would complete it in one year duration. The cost of the project would be around `6.5 lakh.”
Giving details about the software, he said, “With the help of this software, it would become easy for a layman to identify various tree species found in Chandigarh. The software would have database of all tree species found in Chandigarh. The password protected software will have key characters for identification of tree species.”
“At present, it is difficult for the forest staff to differentiate between various species of trees in Chandigarh. Besides, assisting in trees identification, the software would also help the Department to manage and preserve the tree cover of Chandigarh,” he added.
Notably, Chandigarh is ranked third in the country in terms of percentage of area under tree cover, as per the Indian State of Forest Report 2013. Of the city’s total area of 114 sq. km, tree cover is 10 sq km. According to a maiden tree census conducted last year, 87 trees species were found in the city. Chandigarh has a total of 2,31,386 trees (avenues/sectors) of 87 tree species.
A total of 10,764 trees were counted in Sector 46 while least number of 489 trees were found in Sector 6 here. Out of the total trees, Polyalthia longifilia (False Ashoka tree) has been reported to be the most abundant in the city. There are 17,057 trees of Polyalthia longifilia (False Ashoka ) while there are only five trees of Thespisia Populenea species found here.
Kuldeep Sharma said, “The experts from Forest Research Institute will soon initiate the research work to develop the software. The FRI experts would visit various areas in the city to collect information and photos of various identified tree species of Chandigarh.”
last year, the UT Forest and Wildlife Department had also roped in experts from Panjab University to conduct a maiden survey to check the health of trees planted along major roads in Chandigarh. The survey is aimed at identifying the number of diseased trees in the city so that the same can be replaced by healthy saplings.
At present, a large number of trees along V3 roads are affected due to termite infection. And, several trees have already succumbed to termite infection while many others are on the verge of collapse due to the infection.
Earlier in a combined survey conducted in year 2011, the UT Administration and civic body had identify 328 dead or dangerous trees which needs immediate removal otherwise can lead to loss of life and property during strong winds and storms.