Karwar has become the second city in Karnataka and fifth in India to record greenery in the city and the urban tree diversity (UTD).
Modernisation and unplanned growth have brought the issue of greenery in thecity and UTD to the fore. To study this, botanists and forest officials have recorded the density of greener in some select cities, including Bangalore. Chandigarh, Delhi, Nagpur and Coimbatore are the other prominent cities where this exercise had been completed.
The greenery and UTD in Karwar were recorded by Shivanand Bhat, Jayakar Bhandiari, both professors in Government Arts and Science College, Karwar, and Saiyyad Saifuddin. In 2000, such a study was carried out in Bangalore, the sources said. A paper on the study of greenery in the city and UTD was presented by Shivanand Bhat at “Lake 2010” meeting at the Environmental Study Centre of Indian Science Centre in December last year.
The tree census, study and documentation and registration work had begun in June 2010. In Karwar, trees belonging to 106 species were identified. About 70 per cent of them were indigenous. Of these 106 species, wild mango consisted of 20 per cent, Fal Ashoka tree 12 per cent, yellow flame 6 per cent, raintree 5 per cent and jackfruit consisted 6per cent of the trees.
Most trees belonged to the wild category and of them, 40 per cent were most endangered. The trees which were grown on the roadside by the British regime were removed during the expansion of the roads recently. The cement roads and drainage facilities had become a bane for these trees, the study said. There were buildings on both sides of the roads and cement roads were coming in the way of planting saplings.
According to historians Suryanath Kamat and Campbell Gazetteer, the British rulers planted samanea and raintrees on both sides of the roads in Karwar market and these trees were still useful for the public.
The botanists said these trees must be protected in Karwar.
Source - The Hindu
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