New Delhi: In a major green achievement, Mumbai and Hyderabad have been recognized as the Tree City of the World by the Arbor Day Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
Hyderabad is the only city in India which has been recognized for the second consecutive year.
They are now listed with 136 other cities from 21 countries recognised by the FAO across the world.
As per the organisation, 3.50 crore trees have been planted in Hyderabad in 500 volunteer hours. Responding to the achievement, Rajya Sabha MP J Santosh Kumar tweeted: “It’s second one in 2 years.
The credit largely goes to our beloved CM K Chandrashekhar Rao sir, who had introduced Haritha Haaram programme right after the formation of Telangana state & The way our young Iconic Leader in the capacity of Municipal Minister KT Rama Rao has encouraged us a lot.”
According to the India State of Forest Report 2021, which was released by the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Hyderabad tops the megacities that gained maximum green cover with 48.66 sq km in a decade in the country.
This year Mumbai city has also joined the list and became the second city of India which has been recognized as Tree City of the world.
After the achievement the State Environment Minister Aditya Thackeray called on Municipal Commissioner Dr Iqbal Singh Chahal and Park Superintendent and handed over a copy of the letter of commendation received by Jitendra Pardeshi from the Arbor Day Foundation under the auspices of the United Nations.
Maharashtra has the fifth largest forest cover in the country, which has increased by 20 sq km. Among cities, Mumbai has 111 sq km under forest cover, the second highest after Delhi.
Mumbai has seen a 9 per cent increase in forest cover in the last decade: from 102 sq km, it has gone up to 111 sq km.
