53% of giant trees in Gujarat are in Ahmedabad

AHMEDABAD: The city is home to maximum number eco-friendly giant trees in the state. Over 50% of its trees are ‘fat’ with a girth of over 200 cm and can store 16 times more of the carbon emitted by vehicles and humans in Ahmedabad. Of the 43,255 trees with a girth of over 200 cm found in areas covered by eight municipal corporations in Gujarat, the area that falls under AMC has 22,880 such trees, which is the maximum among the cities. This is documented in the paper, Environmental values of giant trees in Ahmedabad, prepared by H S Singh, former additional principal chief conservator of forest who is now member, National Board for Wildlife.

“There are 43,255 large trees — with girth over 200 cm at breast height — in all the eight municipal corporations in Gujarat. Around 53% of these — that is, 22,880 trees — were counted in Ahmedabad,” Singh said. He further said that a total of 2,310 giant trees in Ahmedabad had a girth of over 300 cm against 4,435 giant trees in all the eight municipal corporations taken together.

Singh said that usually a tree stores around 15 to 16 tonnes of carbon in a year but as its girth increases, its capacity to store carbon grows. A tree with a girth of around 300 cm stores 16 times more carbon than a tree with a girth of 75 cm. These trees absorb and store a large quantity of carbon from the environment. The number of large trees in Ahmedabad is about 3.7% of the total 6.2 lakh trees in the city but the former store more carbon than the rest of 96.3% medium and small-sized trees in the city.

He further said that a majority of the giant trees in the city belong to Neem, Pipal, Pipado and Kanji species. According to Singh, these trees are over a hundred years old and were planted much before Independence.

Singh said that the large trees not only absorb carbon but provide all large birds, including vultures, a place to roost and nest. Some birds have disappeared from urban centres after destruction of such trees. In the past, these trees were planted in large open spaces and had the opportunity to grow to a huge size over a period of time.

“Although Ahmedabad has low tree density, old and giant trees have high social and environmental value. During 2011, about 6.2 lakh trees were counted within the area that falls under AMC. This comes to tree cover of only 6.7 % but the share of large and giant trees in the city was relatively high,” Singh said.

Singh said that the city’s oldest and largest trees are now threatened by the spreading concrete jungle. Most of the newly planted trees do not have enough space to grow to a huge size. The recent plantations may increase the number of trees but they cannot replace the giant trees, Singh said. He said that people have to protect these heritage trees so that the next generation can see them.

In India, Gandhinagar is the greenest city as it has 53.9% of its geographical area has tree cover. It can be clubbed among the greenest cities in the world. Tree cover in some new cities such as Gandhinagar and Chandigarh is high but they have less large trees than Ahmedabad city.