In Chennai, a new Miyawaki forest near the Secretariat has been added by the Greater Chennai Corporation. The new Miyawaki forest has been set up under the civic body’s initiative for setting up as many as 1,000 urban forests across the city. It is to note that this Miyawaki forest has been made by the Inner Wheel Club of Madras. Around 3,000 square feet of barren land was used and converted into an urban forest. According to a report by The IE, the club started planting the saplings last year in September and now, the area is covered with a total of 837 trees of 30 indigenous trees. The report noted that the functionaries of Inner Wheel Club along with the corporate officials were the participants in this event.
On February 1, the municipal corporation of Chennai celebrated the first anniversary of Miywaki forest in Kotturpuram. There, Corporation Commissioner G Prakash said that they will now plan more than 1,000 urban forests leveraging the open spaces as well as reserve lands in the city. This is expected to provide green cover in the city.
To be sure, Chennai received its first Miywaki forest at Canal Bank Road in Zone 13 (Adyar) which is an area of 2211.87 sq.m. Around 2,000 saplings were planted in the area with a total cost of Rs 15 lakh. This led to the civic body plan and plant 60,000 saplings among 30 urban forests in Chennai. According to the report, most of the urban forest land belongs to the Greater Chennai Corporation and has been a space that had garbage dumps filled with solid waste, construction debris. Many times these spaces were also used for anti-social activities.
Earlier this month, Prakash said that the corporation has also requested private developers, NGOs and resident associations to help with the creation of these urban forests. He added that it can also be an opportunity for private players to place advertisements, signboards in the forests they will maintain. In order to make resident welfare associations step forward to create urban forests, the Greater Chennai Corporation has also given permission to the residents to visit forests that are there in various parts of the city.
