Chandrababu Naidu plans to change Vijayawada weather; make it tourist, investor friendly

For this the TD government, which will take charge on June 8, has planned massive plantation drive and translocation of lakhs of trees for improving the urban green cover of the area.

Aerial seeding of hillocks and development of shrub forests into dense forests by taking up huge tree plantation programmes is on the cards. Translocation of trees will be on the lines of west Asia, using equipment imported from United States.

In certain pockets of Gujarat this has been successfully implemented with the help of Public Sector Units.

AP Biodiversity Board chairman R. Hampaiah said, “Increasing the urban green cover will bring down day temperatures at least by two or three degrees. Translocation of trees, which are one or two years old, can be done from the nurseries across the country. We successfully did it during COP 11.”

The climate of Vijayawada is very hot and humid and the temperatures regularly cross 40ºC during summer. Similar conditions prevail in Guntur and Tenali region. The humidity rises beyond 68 per cent, particularly from April to June. In fact, Vijayawada is often called “Blazewada” due to it’s extreme weather condition.

In the new green environs plan proposed by Mr Naidu, the forest areas surrounding Vijayawada like Kondapa-lli , Adavinekkalam, A. Konduru and G. Konduru will be developed.

Mr Hampaiah said, “Urban forests can help keep cities within a healthy temperature range. Large parks or tracts of urban trees can cool daytime summer temperatures by about three degree centigrade. Plants cool the surface of the earth in two ways. They cool the air by evaporating water through their leaves. They also moderate the temperature of the ground surface by shading it from direct sunlight.”

The board has proposed planting carbon reducing trees like ficus, neem and fruit yielding plants like tamarind, blue berry, and mango. The trees also modify the climate by acting as a windbreak and improve the air quality too.

Forest officials added that the Krishna estuary area and unused government lands would be developed to improve the green cover.