The forest department will soon create four forests to boost Delhi’s green cover. The new forests are being developed at Aya Nagar, Jaunapur, Dera Mandi and Mamurpur in Narela. Each of them will include butterfly zones, cacti gardens, water bodies and herbal patches. The forests will also have shrubs and smaller plants and will be dominated by native trees primarily.

According to a forest department official, the plan was to replicate successful models like Taj Enclave near Geeta Colony or Garhi Mandu near Shahdara. Some of the forests are likely to be ready by the end of the year. The city has 12 forests already.

Also planned at the city forests are walking tracks, gazebos, bridges to cross water bodies and recreational zones for activities like yoga, The Times Of India reported.

‘Monsoon is the best time to plant shrubs and native saplings. Work at the four forests is already underway and a couple of them might get ready by the end of the year,’ said the official.

The recently-developed forests include Nasirpur (28 hectares), Alipur (19.5 hectares), Mitraon (35.15 hectares), Taj Enclave (56 hectares) and Hauz Rani (28 hectares).

Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai at a recent meeting with Union environment minister Prakash Javadekar said that 10 lakh saplings had been planted this season. The annual target of 31 lakh would be met by the year-end.

As per the forest department officials, an internal target of 25 per cent green cover by 2025 has been set. This would be aided by the creation of the city forests.

‘With the creation of city forest, you get more area to plant saplings. This ends in the creation of mini green zones across the capital. With the current rate of the plantation, reaching the 25 per cent green cover target is quite possible,’ said the official.

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