5
locations in our urban areas. The national bird-
peacock uses these trees for resting at night.
Raptors such as kite and vulture do nesting on
these trees. Trees and shrubs provide nesting
sites and food for birds and other animals.
Urban trees, shrubs and wildlife help people to
maintain their connection with nature.
The urban forest is expected to play its part in
biodiversity conservation. Biodiversity is increasingly
stressed in urban forests where selected forest
species in urban area may serve as a form of ex-situ
conservation. Quite often botanical gardens, located
in the urban areas have a richness of biodiversity.
Indroda Park in Gandhinagar with botanical garden
and city forest support rich diversity of birds,
including nesting of several species. Bird watching
is important activity for nature lovers and youths
in the Indroda Park. In several old cities, the oldest
trees, and also the ones with the largest diameter
are conserved in the botanical garden and not in the
rural forests. Although urban forests may contain
less biological diversity than rural woodlands, the
animals that occur in the urban forests are still
numerous. On a larger scale urban forests can create
or restore biological diversity that will reconnect a
city to its surrounding bioregion. Suburban wetlands-
ponds and lake can be some of the most productive
natural ecosystems. The cities and sub-urban areas
in Gujarat are known for wetlands and they can be
transformed into green space with water-bodies for
recreation and biodiversity conservation. Wetlands
around Ahmedabad are important breeding ground
for the largest crane-Indian sarus. Greenbelts and
greenways can serve as biological corridors.
Human health and tree cover:
The tree cover
reduces stress, and is seen to benefit the health
of urban people. The shade of trees and other
urban green spaces make place for people to
meet and socialize and play. People appreciate
watching, feeding, photographing, and painting
urban wildlife and the environment they live
in. Poor open space and greenery increases
air pollution that triggers respiratory and
other problems, besides raising temperature,
affecting biodiversity and causing psychosomatic
disorders among citizens.
Recreational values:
Urban green space-garden
and parks, forests, tree groves and botanical
gardenshavesignificantamenity,recreationaland
educational value. Recreational and educational
values of Indroda Nature Park, Gandhinagar
and Victoria Park, Bhavnagar are immense and
there is no such ecological and economic tool
to evaluate annual contribution of such parks.
Astudy inChandigadhestimatedthat total annual
recreational value of the city’s park, garden,
green avenue, forest and wildlife was about
Rs. 12.0 crore
11.
Urban land in the United States currently
occupies about 2.8 crore hectare with an
estimated average tree crown cover of 27.1 %.
This structure suggests that the current total
urban forest carbon sequestration in the United
States is approximately 70.4 crore tones with an
estimated annual net Carbon sequestration of
around 2.28 crore tones. Besides directly storing
carbon, urban trees also reduce Carbon dioxide
(CO
2
) emissions by cooling ambient air and
allowing residents to minimize annual heating
and cooling
12,13
. There are 5.83 lakh people and
14.7 lakh trees in Portlands city, Oregon, USA
and the tree canopy cover is about 26 % of the
total city area of 342 km
2
and tree density of
about 43 trees/ha
4
. The annual environmental
benefits provided by the entire urban forest
canopy cover exceed $ 3.8 crore in Portlands
4
.
About 19.2 lakh trees in Washington, D.C. cover
28.6 percent of the area. The urban forest
currently store about 526,000 tons of carbon
valued at $9.7 million. In addition, these trees
remove about 16,200 tons of Carbon per year
($299,000 per year) and about 540 tones of air
pollution per year ($2.5 million per year). The
structural or compensatory value is estimated
