'Link protected areas with major patches to enhance green fight'

NEW DELHI: A plan prepared by Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (Intach) for enhancing climate resilience and urban biodiversity suggests that habitat value and biodiversity richness of existing greens in Delhi can be increased by creating new patches in the urban matrix and linking major patches through corridors.
According to the plan, protected areas like wildlife sanctuaries and biodiversity parks can be linked with unprotected patches like large campuses, heritage sites, gram sabha lands and green belts.The plan has been submitted to Delhi Biodiversity Council.
The plan says isolated patches of urban biodiversity prevent gene flows through lack of corridor connectivity, resulting in vulnerable disease-prone populations of flora and fauna. However, biodiversity corridors are corridors of land planted with appropriate vegetation, enabling fauna to move across a wider territory.
Manu Bhatnagar, principal director, natural heritage division, Intach, said, "The urban biodiversity plan has been prepared to enhance ecological services from underutilised areas and by augmenting the green area network."
Giving an example of a possible corridor connectivity, Bhatnagar said, "The Hauz Khas district park can be linked on the east to Siri fort-Jahapanah city forest, which can be further connected to Tughlakabad Fort. This can be connected to Adilabad Fort-Nai ka Qila and Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range Area. On the other hand, the western side of Hauz Khas can be connected with patches like IIT campus, Sanjay Van, NCERT campus, JNU, Aravali Biodiversity Park, Shankar Vihar and Delhi Cantonment; and, then, northwards to Central Ridge and IARI campus."
The potential corridors, which can enable movement between green patches, are river banks and floodplains, bank strips of major stormwater drainage channels, large side strips along railway tracks, roadside greens, areas below major transmission lines, long and wide densely planted verges and hedgerows.
"In Delhi, there are around 50km of irrigation channels in north-west and west districts. Another example for corridor development is railway tracks like the eastward-bound line passing through Anand Vihar which has plenty of vegetated strips," says the plan.
It also emphasises on a softer greener environment utilising components of small land use, like vertical landscaping, rooftop greens and hedges, as it contributes to the ecosystem. Many campuses could serve as local nature reserves.
Intach recommends that land-owning agencies and entities can be incentivised to execute ecological plans within their precincts. Government agencies dealing with infrastructure can factor in ecological considerations, especially when dealing with the suggested corridors, it adds. "Once the proposals are accepted in Delhi, they can be extended to NCR," said Bhatnagar.