In a city where summer temperatures routinely cross 40 degrees Celsius, the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) is hoping peach and plum trees planted on Tuesday under the ‘mass fruit tree plantation drive’ will manage to thrive. The council planted 5,000 fruit trees at Nehru Park, Lodhi Garden, Talkatora Garden, Sanjay Jheel, Children’s Park and Moti Bagh. The varieties include jakranda, cassia, peach, pear, plum, lemon, kinnow, pine jamun and guava, among others. Both peaches and plums grow well in the hills. Over the past decade, Delhi government and civic agencies have emphasised on planting Delhi's native trees to ensure a better rate of survival and maintain ecological balance. “However, for this particular programme, we were focusing on small to moderate sized fruit trees since our primary objective was to feed birds and animals and emphasize on nutritional importance of adding fruits to our daily eating habits,” said S Chelliah, director of horticulture at NDMC. But environmentalist Pradeep Krishen, author of Trees of Delhi, said, “It’s ridiculous. peach trees might yet survive and produce inferior fruit but the plum and pear trees will simply not survive.”
