45
Like the developed countries, the majority
of Asian, particularly Gujarat people will live
in their cities. Although still one of the less
urbanised continents, the share of the Asian
population living in urban areas has grown from
32% in 1990 to 42% in 2010. The United Nations
forecasts that half of Asians will be in cities
by 2026, but Gujarat may reach to this stage
earlier, perhaps in a decade
22
. Amongst the
major 22 cities in a study to describe the Asian
Green City Index (four from India), only Delhi
has environmental status above average and
the rest of the major cities-Calcutta, Mumbai
and Bangalore have average or below average
environment status
25
. There is need to address
environment issues, including green cover in the
urban areas of Gujarat for better life of its citizen.
The environment status of a city is dependent
on several parameters such as waste disposal,
clean air, and green space.
Cities in USA and Europe have more green
space than cities in Asia. As mentioned earlier,
some green cities in Asia have 20 to 30 percent
of their geographical areas under green cover,
or 40 square meter (m
2
) of urban green open
space per capita, based on population pressure.
Green space in this case includes tree and forest
cover, garden and parks and such other open
space. In majority of the cases, tree and forest
cover is more than half of the green space.
Three municipal corporations and about two
dozen municipalities already have tree cover
above this norm. Thus, planning for improving
tree and forest cover to the level of 15 % of
the geographical area of the rest of municipal
corporations and municipalities should be the
target of the authorities.
Certain areas such as Ahmedabad and its
satellite areas in Bopal, Sanand, Vogodara and
neighbouring Bhal areas are being filled by
concrete structures at the cost of wetlands,
natural vegetation and agricultural lands. With
14. Recommendations
expansion of concrete jungle and decline in
tree cover, threat of development of temporary
hot temperature islands, beyond tolerance
of human beings, in the absence of adequate
tree cover or other such vegetation during the
extreme summer in a large urban landscape is
not ruled out. To avoid such possible scenario,
maintaining certain percent of tree cover in the
semi-arid environment having intense sunlight
and low rains is necessary. Thus, to avoid
such a possible scenario and also to improve
environmental status of a city, following actions
have been recommended for improving green
cover.
(i)
Planning of urban forestry should be linked
with planning in the energy, water supply,
urban i
nfrastructure, waste disposal,
reclamation sites and construction of
houses and buildings. Tree cover should
be considered as an infrastructure for
sustaining human population with quality
life.
(ii) Existing patches of natural and man-made
urban forest like Victoria Park and Indroda
Park should be preserved and enriched,
and they should be managed as important
recreational and educational centres.
(iii) Culturalforestlike
PunitVan
inGandhinagar
or
Mangalya
at Amabji should be raised
in and around the city. The available
wasteland or common land should be
converted into woodlands dotted in an
urban landscape. In other words, every city
should have dotted patches of tree groves
or forest in the landscape of concrete
jungle. Large blocks of lands (above 5 ha)
should be identified in periphery of the
urban areas or in peripheral villages for
developing urban or recreational forest or
Sanskrtitic Van
or tree garden to provide
recreational space to the people and also
for improving quality of urban life.
