{"id":11474,"date":"2011-10-19T12:36:00","date_gmt":"2011-10-19T12:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/2011-international-year-of-forests\/"},"modified":"2018-06-04T17:11:13","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T17:11:13","slug":"2011-international-year-of-forests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/2011-international-year-of-forests\/","title":{"rendered":"2011-International Year of Forests Celebrations Launched"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/p>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSh.Tejendra
\nKhanna, Lt. Governor, Delhi launched the \u201c2011 International Year of Forests
\ncelebration\u201d by planting a sapling at Sanjay Van (near Neela Hauz) at about
\n10.30 AM on 19.10.2011.  Sh.G.S.Patnaik,
\nVice Chairman, DDA, Sh.Ashok Khurana, Engineer Member, DDA who were present
\nbesides the volunteers of \u2018Working With Nature\u2019, an NGO and schoolm children in
\nlarge numbers also planted saplings.  
\nWorking With Nature in association with DDA had organized the
\ncelebrations.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n<\/a><\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nSpeaking on the
\noccasion Sh.Tejendra Khanna, Lt. Governor, Delhi appreciated the efforts of AVM
\nVinod Rawat (Retd.), Prof. P.S.Ramakrishnan, and  Dr.Surya Prakash of WWN for taking up the
\nrestoration work in Sanjay Van. He said that all citizens should make concerted
\nefforts to preserve ecological and bio-cultural heritage. He further explained
\nthe problem of weeds and how it degrades the growing plants. He advised the
\nschool children present on the occasion to avoid habits which like the
\nweeds-stunt their growth and development in life. He also visited the highest
\nvantage point which organizers later referred as the Tejendra Point.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\nThis site is at
\na vantage point from where one can enjoy the scenic beauty of Sanjay Van,
\nobserve its flora, fauna and even spot Qutab Minar and ruins of Prithivi Raj
\nChauhan era etc. Massive tree plantation by school children and locals, tree
\ntalks, bird watching etc. will also be organized.<\/div>\n
\n            <\/div>\n
\nAs per direction
\nof His Excellency Sh.Tejendra Khanna, Hon\u2019ble Lt. Governor, Delhi, WWN under
\nits founder Air Vice Marshal (Retd.)Vinod Rawat is working with DDA to restore
\nSanjay Van by adopting scientific approach. 
\nThis will help in restoring the ancient ridge forest and stop its
\nfurther degradation.  A team of WWN volunteers
\nalong with Prof. P.S.Ramakrishnan, a renowned ecologist; Dr.Surya Prakash, avid
\nbird watcher, Prof. K.S.Rao, an ecologist from Delhi University and nature
\nlovers from local area are making concerted efforts to restore the forest.<\/div>\n
\n            <\/div>\n
\nDelhi
\nDevelopment Authority in association with \u2018Working With Nature\u2019, an NGO has
\ntaken up the restoration of Sanjay Van with the following objectives:<\/div>\n
\n1.         To restore Sanjay Van
\nand replicate its restoration model to other ridges of Delhi.<\/div>\n
\n2.         To work towards making a
\nbird sanctuary for Delhi at Sanjay Van.<\/div>\n
\n3.         To educate school
\nchildren on awareness towards environment and connecting them to nature.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n            Sanjay
\nVan is spread over an area of 783 acres and was carved out by DDA to conserve
\nand develop it into a green forest and its restoration is crucial in
\nmaintaining the ecological balance of South Delhi.  To restore and conserve native Aravali
\nvegetation, a continuous process around 40000 native trees have been
\ngrown.  This includes species like Dhak
\n\u201cFlame of the forest\u201d (Butea monosperma),<\/i> Khain (Acacia catechu),<\/i>
\nKhejri (Prosopis cineraria) <\/i>etc. Trees such as Hingot (Balanites
\nroxburghii)<\/i>, Ronjh (acacia leucophloea), <\/i>Siris (Albezia leback)
\netc.<\/i> and indigenous species like neem, Kala siris etc. have been raised
\nthrough seeds, nurturing\/transplanting germinated saplings.  Other bird friendly species like Semal, Fig,
\nKadamb, Jamun, Imli, Peepul, Banyan etc have also been planted.  Ber (Zizyphus sp.)<\/i> bushes which once
\nflourished in this area have also been revived after many years through better
\nrain water management.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n            The
\nspread of Vilaiti Keekar (Prosopis juliflora)<\/i> has also been controlled
\nto a great extent by eradicating its seed pods, uprooting young saplings
\netc.  Water harvesting structure and
\ncleaning of discharge sewage water\/effluents is being planned on priority.  Apart from recharging underground water it
\nwill also help restoration of natural biodiversity and arrest erosion of soil.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n            Number
\nof steps has been initiated to make a bird sanctuary at Sanjay Van mainly by
\nselective planting of Fauna friendly vegetation, cleaning of discharged
\nsewerage water\/effluents from ponds, appropriate vegetation all around water
\nbody and introduction of bird friendly fishes in ponds.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n
\n            To
\neducate school children on awareness towards environment, the students were
\ntaken to Sanjay Van at regular intervals for jungle trails, bird watching,
\nplanting trees, removing plastics etc.  <\/div>\n
\n  <\/div>\n
\nDuring the celebration a site is
\nbeing developed at a vantage point from where one can enjoy the scenic beauty
\nof Sanjay Van, observe its flora, fauna and even spot Qutab Minar and ruins of
\nPrithivi Raj Chauhan era etc. massive tree plantation by school children and
\nlocals, tree talks, bird watching etc. will be organized.<\/div>\n
\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sh.Tejendra Khanna, Lt. Governor, Delhi launched the \u201c2011 International Year of Forests celebration\u201d by planting a sapling at Sanjay Van (near Neela Hauz) at about 10.30 AM on 19.10.2011.  Sh.G.S.Patnaik, Vice Chairman, DDA, Sh.Ashok Khurana, Engineer Member, DDA who were present besides the volunteers of \u2018Working With Nature\u2019, an NGO and schoolm children in large numbers also planted saplings.   Working With Nature in association with DDA had organized the celebrations. Speaking on the occasion Sh.Tejendra Khanna, Lt. Governor, Delhi appreciated the efforts of AVM Vinod Rawat (Retd.), Prof. P.S.Ramakrishnan, and  Dr.Surya Prakash of WWN for taking up the restoration work <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[92,82,1],"tags":[1879],"class_list":["post-11474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-better-india","category-inspiration","category-update","tag-update","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11474"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44707,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11474\/revisions\/44707"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwarkaparichay.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}