BBMP to outsource tree census to experts

Owing to a shortage of staff in its Forest Cell, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is planning to outsource the tree census survey to private firms or expert groups to get the project going.

“We do not have enough number of people to carry out the enormous process of identifying the number of trees in the city. We are open to outsourcing it to expert groups or even private firms who are interested to do it,” said M K Cholarajappa, Deputy Conservator of Forests, BBMP.

Though the tree census was supposed to take off in 2015, the inordinate delay is because of the lack of coordination between the state forest department and the BBMP forest cell. “The final decision will only be taken by the Chief Conservator of Forests, Bangalore circle, who is from the state government. This has not happened yet,” he said.

“There are eight zonal officers in the BBMP forest department right now, and the city is so huge that both time and energy is spent on preserving, pruning and removing the fallen trees and calling for tenders and settling all those details. This census requires an exclusive group so that the census is conducted properly. The census can be used as a reference to know about trees in Bengaluru for years to come,” added Cholarajappa.

The civic body is not entirely washing its hands off by outsourcing the plan. It plans to conduct a workshop for its officers about the tree census. “I have suggested to the state forest department to conduct the workshop for our forest cell officers during the first week of August and eventually begin the census work by the first week of September,” said Cholarajappa.