The Times of India 9 Sep 11;
HYDERABAD: The Hyderabad chapter of World Wildlife Foundation-India (WWF) on Thursday launched its 'Cities for Forests Campaign' in the city to raise awareness about the need for urban forests. As part of its four-month-long initiative (September to December) WWF will encourage students and youth from across Hyderabad to come together to study the existing forest cover of the city and in turn help authorities preserve them better.
Speaking at the launch held in KBR National park, state director of WWF-India Farida Tampal said, "The United Nations General Assembly has declared the year 2011 as the International Year of Forests. Keeping with that, we have started this programme in Hyderabad to highlight the importance of green cover within the urban pockets of the twin cities."
Elaborating further, Tampal said that over the next few months, students from over a dozen city schools would be conducting surveys across localities to document the number of indigenous and exotic trees in Hyderabad. "Once we have a comprehensive data, we can appropriately urge the civic authorities to take up plantation of more native species (neem, tamarind, fig) as against exotic ones," the WWF representative said explaining why Hyderabad is in dire need for such trees. "A lot of exotic trees have surfaced in the city over the last few years.
While these trees have their advantages and add to Hyderabad's green cover, they are also easily perishable, because they are not accustomed to local conditions. It is, therefore, important that we have more indigenous trees to check the ailing health of our urban forests," she said.
