With an aim to increase green cover, the Forest Department in Uttarakhand has plans to develop six 'city forests' in the Kumaon region. Tejaswini Patil, chief conservator forests Kumaon region shared that 2 of these urban forests will come up in the plains and 4 in the hilly districts.
Department officials have also begun looking for land in municipal areas for the project. They hope this will encourage more individuals to come forward and plant more trees, in order to save the environment from the disastrous consequences of climate change.
Hilly districts will feature one-hectare city forests as it is quite challenging to identify larger areas in these regions. In the plains, 10 hectares of land is being identified to develop these forests.
As per the India State of Forest Report 2019, last year, Uttarakhand reported an increase of just 8.04 sq km of forests.