Kolkata: Amid a water scarcity looms over the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation parks department is struggling to keep 2.5 lakh saplings planted across 144 wards in the past 18 months alive. Many shrubs and young trees planted on pavements, road dividers, median verges, boulevards and parks have wilted in the heat; others are in threat of perishing unless they are adequately watered. According to a KMC parks department official, only regular watering can save these saplings from intense heat. However, citing infrastructure problems, the civic official said the KMC parks department can hardly take care of the watering needs of this huge number of saplings for want of water tankers. “We have 12 water tankers that need to take care of watering needs of saplings and trees in 144 wards. The infrastructure is highly inadequate, and we apprehend if we fail to augment the capacity, we will have to pay a price,” said a KMC parks department official adding that the civic body needed at least 32 water tankers, (two in each borough) to cope with the growing demand for watering plants in the wake of a prolonged heatwave. “We are trying our best to make best use of the available water tankers to water the drying saplings and plants. We are in conversation with the water supply department to supply us more water,” said a civic official.In a bid to fight air pollution, KMC had taken up a major plantation drive to create green verges across the city. A KMC official said the plantation drive was successfully completed in areas such as New Alipore, Gariahat Road, Jodhpur Park, Dhakuria, Rashbehari Avenue, Jadavpur, Golf Green, CIT Road (Moulali), Bidhan Sarani, Chittaranjan Avenue and Bowbazar Street. Rangon, croton, togor, kamini, duranta plumeri, dresina are being planted. In some places,fruit saplings like guava, litchi, coconut, mango, jamrul are being planted . Ranjit Samanta, a horticulturist, said theseshrubs are ideal to absorb vehicular pollution very fast.
We also published the following articles recently
Water tankers come to the rescue of Ballari dustbowls
Ballari mining companies tackle dust pollution with 670 MLD water, equivalent to 46% of Bengaluru’s daily usage. Severe drought exacerbates the problem, prompting the use of 200+ tanker trucks. State govt officials explore solutions like a conveyor belt track.
Dusty classrooms, no food & no water for officials on poll duty
Sudhesh Kumar and Bharti Raghav face challenges at government-run schools during poll duty. Lack of basic facilities like food, water, and clean classrooms. Govt bank employee in Noida also highlights poor washrooms. Abhinav Gopal oversees arrangements for 3,000 polling booths.
Cauvery Calling movement: 2 crore saplings planted in 2023-24, total reaches 10.9 crore
Led by Sadhguru, Cauvery Calling planted 2 crore saplings in 2023-24, totaling 10.9 crore. 2,13,000 farmers shifted to tree-based agriculture. Collaborative efforts with government agencies improved distribution and laws, aiming to enhance the river’s ecosystem and farmers’ livelihoods.
