MCD to Plant 80k Plants by 2022-23

Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has chosen to use its open spaces apart from parks at dispensaries, community halls, schools, zonal offices, colonies, roads, etc. to complete the target of planting 85,000 saplings and 5.2 lakh shrubs this year.

The majority of the parks do not have enough space to oblige more plantations hence, new sites are needed. Whereas, there are still some barren lands where dense plantation programs could be done in order to develop mini forests.
The Miyawaki technique has been used by the east corporation to identify the sites for dense plantations.
There is a target to plant 20,000 saplings in the Shahdara north and south zones. The remaining 80,000 would be shrubs. 25,000 saplings of indigenous breeds and 45,000 shrubs have been prepared. Plantation will start at the beginning of the monsoon.
Earlier in both zones, 3 mini forests were developed including at Mayur Vihar, GD Colony and Ghazipur. 5 more mini forests are in plan to get developed at Nandnagri, Sunder Nagri, Yamuna Vihar and Welcome.
Without any investment from the corporations, these sites are being developed by an NGO using Miyawaki technology that helps faster plant growth. The saplings have crossed the height of eight feet and soon they will transform into dense areas at GT Colony.
There are plans to develop 15 open sites/parks into mini-forests that are spread over 31 acres in three zones under the north corporation. 18 large parks have been developed into mini-forests that are spread over 31.6 acres in phase-I.
Indigenous varieties of plants like neem, pilkhan, papal, jamun, fig (ficus carica), etc are being planted because their survival rate is high. There are proper boundaries and gates around mini-forests. Also, no benches are there to dissuade walkers from sitting unnecessarily.
The corporation is making arrangements to ensure sufficient water supply in these parks for the first three years and simultaneously trying to pool in NGOs for their annual maintenance.
Arrangements are being made by the corporation to ensure adequate water supply in the parks for the initial three years and all the while, attempting to pool in NGOs for their support each year.

The corporation has also got a third party audit done to check the survival rates of saplings that were planted in the last five years. India Agriculture Research Institute, Pusa Road has conducted the audit for south and east corporations. North corporation got the audit done by Forest Research Institute, Dehradun. The result shows that 75% of the saplings have survived at 6,102 parks.