Ahmedabad city records highest number of big trees

Ahmedabad city got a unique green feather on its cap recently when a tree count taken up by the Municipal Corporation has revealed that the city has the highest number of big and old trees in the state. The tree count recorded 6.18 lakh trees in the city, among which 22,880 were big trees.

Ahmedabad City: A Panoramic View (source: WikiMedia Commons)

A tree, according to the counting procedure used, is considered big when the girth size of their trunk is more than 200 cm. Thus 3.7 percent of the total trees in the city turned out to be big trees. This is a far better amount than that of India’s greenest city Gandingagr. 

However, splitting up the total number of big trees in the city, it was found that 14150 trees marked in the counting had a girth size between 200 cm to 250 cm, while 6420 trees were sized between 251 to 300 centimeters. There was 2310 tress with a girth size of over 300 cm, owing to their old age. 

The counting also found that the average tree size in Ahmedabad is bigger than other cities of Gujarat. The tree count has recorded 33619 tress from all the eight municipal corporations of Gujarat. While in all other municipal corporations, trees with more than 200 centimeter of girth size constitute only 1.31 percent of the total trees. 

The ancient nature and rich heritage of the city when compared to other cities is said to be the reason for the presence of more old, big trees in the area. 

However, it is yet to see how long the city will hold the title as the concrete jungle is razing down the remaining natural vegetation in the satellite areas of the corporation like Bopal, Sanand and Bhal. 

Meanwhile, Bhavnagr, which had the highest number of trees, recorded lower average tree size. According to officials, it is mainly due to the large number of Acacia trees in the Victoria Park in the city.