Ranchi district has added largets number of trees as per the latest India State of Forest Survey, 2017 released early this week. The figures suggest that geographical area of the district since the last such study conducted in 2015 has gone up by 10 km2.
Against the entire geographical area of the capital district which is 5097 km2 Ranchi has recorded 63 km2 under very dense forests, 364 km2 as moderately dense forest and 737 km2 as open forest.
“It is notable that forest cover in Ranchi has gone up by 10 km2 in comparison with India State of Forest Report, 2015. This can be termed as great since it is the highest among all the 24 districts of Jharkhand and also considering speedy urbanization taking place here,” said Conservator of Forest Rajiv lochan Bakshi who had served as Divisional Forest Officer in Ranchi during most of the period.
The forest cover with the addition has recorded up to 22.84 per cent of the total geographical area of the district. Notably the State in the report has recorded 29.55 per cent of its total geographical area under tree cover.
The official went on attributing the contributions coming from common man apart from efforts having taken at the Government level. “Any measure cannot succeed unless there is people’s participation.
The Department, on its part, had conducted several plantation drives and actively backed the initiatives by involving everyone.
If I can recall properly, about 20 lakh samplings were planted in Ranchi only during the last two years,” said Bakshi.
The feat is also important since as many as eight districts of the State have conceded its green cover during the study period, including Chatra (-8 km2) and Khunti (7 km2). Districts like Deoghar, Jamtara, Dhanbad, Dumka are the worst performers in terms of their geographical areas covered with trees, all of these below 16 per cent.