Company Name : Nepra Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Source : Times of India

Was it difficult to find a cool, shaded spot during the scorching heat wave of last month? If yes, it is because you live in a city. Had you been living in one of the smaller towns or rural areas, there would have been an abundance of green cover for relief. 

    The Gujarat forest department has released its tree count in non-forest areas, including agricultural land, roadsides, waste land and cities, and found that there were 26.87 crore trees in the state in 2009. The previous such tree census had counted 25.1 crore trees, an increase of 1.77 
    crore. “It’s not just a quantitative increase, but a qualitative one as well,” says additional chief conservator of forests HS Singh. “Although gando baval has declined drastically, we have planted more trees like neem, teak and mango.” 

Forest department estimates some 70 lakh to 80 lakh trees are cut in the state annually, constituting about three per cent of the total trees. 
A total of 835 villages, evenly distributed in all districts, were selected by random method with each and every tree being counted in these districts. Experts say the sample size is more than enough to estimate tree population accurately. The previous count in 2003 had depended heavily on the wildly growing gando bawal. But the state government then allowed the chopping of this variety, used extensively for making charcoal. 

“Gujarat’s top seven districts are among the top 50 districts in the country in terms of tree cover,” Singh added. “Anand is the healthiest district in the state because of the way it has managed its land and waterbased economy.” 
Interestingly, Anand does not have a single acre notified as forest land. But not many in the district are surprised at getting top position in successive tree census. For its top status, Anand has to thank the vision of the architects of educational town Vallabh Vidyanagar - Bhaikaka Patel and Bhikabhai Patel, who wanted trees to flower throughout the year. Just the township, spread across eight square kilometres, has 73 species of trees along the roads. 
Says professor AS Reddy of SPU’s biosciences department, “Farmers here also follow the concept of green fencing – a peculiarity which is not found in other parts of the state. Whether it is a small one-acre farm or spread in hectares, most progressive farmers here create a boundary of trees around their farms. The district also has a good canal network.” 
Reddy adds that apart from availability of water and awareness among citizens, the rise in trees per hectare can also be attributed to self sown trees. The bigger cities like Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Rajkot have however lagged in green cover.