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1. About Gujarat
On May 1, 1960, Gujarat was created out of 17
northern districts of the former state of Bombay.
At present, the State has 26 districts (226
talukas
, 18,618 villages, 242 towns). Located
on the western coast of India, Gujarat has two
gulfs and the longest coastline of over 1,600
Km. Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat is
located close to Amdavad (Ahmedabad), the
commercial capital. Gujarat has total population
of 6.03 crore, which is approximately 4.99% of
total Indian population (Census data 2011).
For the first time since Independence, the
absolute increase in Indian population is
more in urban areas that in rural areas. Urban
population in the country increased from 27.81
% in 2001 Census to 31.16 % in 2011 census in
India. On other hands, the proportion of rural
population declined from 72.19 % to 68.84 %.
Urban Population of Gujarat State is 42.6 %,
which used to be at 37.4% in 2001. This has
resulted into tremendous pressure on the urban
resources, including urban forest, tree cover
and lakes. Ahmedabad is the most populated
district (city+ rural) in the State, with 72.0 lakh
million people, followed by Surat with 60.7 lakh
people, as per Gujarat’s Directorate of census
operations
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. The four cities-Ahmedabad, Surat,
Vadodara and Rajkot are mega cities, each
having population over million people and the
two of them-Ahmedabad and Surat jointly have
about ten million people. Each of the rest of
municipal corporations and municipalities have
human population below onemillion. Towns and
industrial areas are growing fast in the coastal
region. After Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra,
urbanization is highest in Gujarat in India.
Status of Tree Cover in the Urban Areas in Gujarat State
Dense tree cover between kankaria lake and Ahmedabad zoo
