Gripping with El Niño and heatwaves, BMC chalks out digital urban forestry exercise in Mumbai
Data sourced from the BMC also showed that felling of 21,098 trees had taken place between 2017 and 2023 to make way for developmental projects.
Mumbai -- which is one of the most densely populated globally also has a low tree-to-human ration. (Express photo by Nidhi Jacob) At a time when Mumbai is reeling under a heat wave because of the El-Niño climate pattern, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has proposed an ambitious urban forestry exercise, under which the civic body is set to create a digital dashboard providing records of every tree in Mumbai.
The move comes also at a time when the maximum city has lost a substantial number of trees to make away for various infrastructure and civic amenity projects in the last ten years.
The officials maintained that the first step of this project will be carrying a tree census, which began earlier this month. This will be followed by consolidating the data into a digital dashboard. According to the rules of the union ministry, a tree census is set to be carried out after every five years by the municipal corporations. In Mumbai, the last tree census was carried out in 2011 and the next one was due in 2016, however, the census got delayed and will be held now after a delay of 10 years and 15 years since the last census was carried out. The last census depicted that there are 29.75 lakh trees in the financial capital.
Mumbai — which is one of the most densely populated globally also has a low tree-to-human ration.
The city’s estimated population in 2021 stands at 1.29 crore, making the present tree-to-human ratio at one tree for every four persons.
An Indian Institute of Science (IISC) report that was published in 2014, highlighted that the ideal human-to-tree ratio should be seven trees for every human being. A United Nations (UN) estimate also stated that at least 10 trees are needed per person for sustaining a healthy lifestyle.
Data sourced from the BMC also showed that felling of 21,098 trees had taken place between 2017 and 2023 to make way for developmental projects such as Mumbai metro, bullet train, Mumbai coastal road, sewage treatment plant (STP) and Goregaon-Mulund link road (GMLR) along with many other road widening and bridge construction projects.
Meanwhile, civic officials said that the proposed census will be beyond a routine tree count, as the officials intend to record nearly 29–32 scientific attributes for each tree, including botanical species, height, girth, canopy spread, flowering season, health condition, estimated age, carbon sequestration capacity, precise location and geo-tagged photographs.
“The main objective of this tender is not just about counting the number of trees present in the city but to ensure the green cover of Mumbai is protected and monitored with utmost transparency. The information that will be obtained from this study will help us in better sustainable environment planning and will allow us to track illegal tree felling activities, while at the same time this census will be our core guide when it comes to planning development projects keeping in mind climate resilience,” Avinash Dhakane, additional municipal commissioner told The Indian Express.
The mammoth exercise which began early this month will be completed in 2 years, and the BMC is set to spend Rs 14 crore for executing it. Going forward the dashboard will be accessible to citizens through mobile applications and websites.
Furthermore, the census will also digitally map Mumbai’s green cover and Miyawaki plantations that have taken over in the past few years. Post COVID, to make up for the lost green cover, the civic body had taken up Miyawaki plantation, a Japanese technique of creating micro forests in degraded urban lands.
Mapping trees and history
Meanwhile, the key innovations proposed under this project include introduction of a QR code system for identifying and marking heritage trees. In Mumbai, several old localities like Parsi Colony (Dadar), Bandra and Grant Road have heritage trees like Baobab and Laburnum trees which are century old trees that have remained part of the city’s ecosystem. These trees have historical significance also associated with them. For example, the Baobab trees are testament to Portuguese settlements in India, while the Laburnum trees known to have bright yellow flowers were introduced by the British. Today, five protected Laburnum trees stand near Mani Bhavan at Grant Road where Mahatma Gandhi lived for 17 years. Meanwhile, the Baobab has been given a heritage status by UNESCO.
As a result, the officials maintained that the proposed digital system will further allow both the administration and citizens to access information about historically significant trees. In addition to this, the project will also carry out a Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) mapping for dangerous trees to assess internal structural weakness before accidents occur.
“A QR code will be fitted on every heritage tree and citizens can get the information related to this tree and their history by scanning the code. The same information will also be consolidated in the digital dashboard that could be accessed by mobile apps or websites,” an official said.
Move towards climate resilient Mumbai
Environmental experts stated that this move will become a crucial tool towards climate resilience planning in Mumbai. At present, Mumbai is reeling under the urban heat island effect, where, the city’s surface temperature has increased significantly with several pockets clocking day temperature of 40-degrees multiple times during the past three months.
Speaking to The Indian Express, wildlife biologist and urban greening expert, Donna Sequira said that this census will provide baseline data which is important when it comes to chalking out sustainable development and planning.
“After the drive is completed, we will be able to get an idea behind the reasons for increase or decrease in the number of trees since the last census was carried out 15 years ago. Allowing us to create an inventory of a climate resilient system,” Sequira told Express.
“The trees stop the sun’s rays from directly heating the ground. Therefore, places where there are more trees the temperature is much cooler. As a result, this study will allow us to understand the deficit of the tree population in Mumbai and help in adapting mitigation measures that may lead to bringing down the city’s surface temperature by planting trees wherever required,” Sequira said.
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