Context: Recently, the office of the Comptroller and Auditor General of India located at Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg has taken steps to establish an Urban Forest in the Office Park.
Key Points

• This would be a dense urban forest with multiple tree layers including 12000 saplings of 59 indigenous species in another year or so.
• The Miyawaki method of forest creation is employed which could help in reducing the temperature by as much as 14 degrees & increase the moisture by more than 40%.
• With minimal maintenance, including watering and de-weeding, the urban forest will be self-sustainable by October 2021.
• A dense forest ecosystem will be created in an area that is little over 1 acre in size.
• The multi-layered forest will have shrubs, small to medium-size trees and tall trees carefully arranged as peripheral and core plant communities.

Urban Forests

• Urban Forestry concentrates on all tree-dominated as well as other green resources in and around urban areas, such as woodlands, public and private urban parks and gardens, street tree and square plantations, botanical gardens and cemeteries.
• The forest is made up of trees which are native to the area and are three dimensional, multi-layered communities having 30 times the surface area of the greenery of single-layered lawns, and have more than 30 times the ability to protect against natural disasters and to conserve the environment.
• The Urban forests are the lungs of the cities and act as an oxygen bank and Carbon Sink and send out an action-oriented message of bringing back lost environmental protection forests.
• They have an ecosystem which can restore habitat for birds, bees, butterflies and microfauna.
• These are essential for pollination of crops and fruits and to help maintain a balanced ecosystem.

About Nagar Van Scheme

• The Ministry of Environment and Forests has launched the Nagar Van Scheme on the occasion of World Environment Day on 5 June.
• The scheme aims to develop 200 Urban Forests across India in the next five years.
• The forests will be developed with the help of people’s participation and collaboration between the Forest Department, Municipal bodies, NGOs, Corporates and local citizens.
• The scheme will also provide an opportunity to the states to manage urban ecosystems.

Road Ahead

• India is endowed with rich biodiversity having several species of animals and plants and hosts 4 of the 35 global bio-diversity hotspots containing several endemic species. 
• However, increasing population, deforestation, urbanisation and industrialisation have put our natural resources under tremendous pressure causing loss of biodiversity. 
• Biodiversity is vital for survival of all life form on this planet and is a key to providing various ecological services. Urban forest is the best way to bridge this gap. Hence, this scheme.