KOLKATA: As water scarcity looms over the city, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation parks department is struggling to keep 2.5 lakh saplings planted across 144 wards in the past 18 months alive. Many shrubs and young trees planted on pavements, road dividers, median verges, boulevards and parks have wilted in the heat; others are under threat of perishing, unless they are adequately watered.
According to a KMC parks department official, only regular watering can save these saplings from intense heat. However, citing infrastructure problems, the civic official said the KMC parks department can hardly take care of the watering needs of this huge number of saplings, for want of water tankers. “We have 12 water tankers that need to take care of watering needs of saplings and trees in 144 wards. The infrastructure is highly inadequate, and we apprehend if we fail to augment the capacity, we will have to pay a price,” said a KMC parks department official adding that the civic body needed at least 32 water tankers, (two ine ach borough) to cope with the growing demand for watering plants in the wake of a prolonged heat wave. “We are trying our best to make best use of the available water tankers to water the drying saplings and plants. We are in conversation with the water supply department to supply us more water,” said a civic official.
In a bid to fight air pollution, KMC had taken up a major plantation drive to create green verges across the city.
A KMC official said the plantation drive was successfully completed in areas such as New Alipore, Gariahat Road, Jodhpur Park, Dhakuria, Rashbehari Avenue, Jadavpur, Golf Green, CIT Road (Moulali), Bidhan Sarani, Chittaranjan. Avenue and Bowbazar Street. Rangon, croton, togor, kamini, duranta plumeri, dresina are being planted.
In some places, fruit saplings like guava, litchi, coconut, mango, jamrul are being planted. Ranjit Samanta, a horticulturist, said these shrubs are ideal to absorb vehicular pollution very fast.
