By Garhwal Post Bureau
Dehradun, 9 Sep: Municipal Commissioner Namami Bansal delivered a lecture on the ‘Role of Urban Forestry and Community Engagement in Building Climate Resilient Cities’ at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) here today. In her address, she emphasised on the urgent need for integrated urban planning to address the escalating impacts of climate change. Drawing attention to recent urban floods in Gurugram, Noida, and Bengaluru, she underlined the vulnerability of metropolitan areas to extreme weather events and environmental degradation.
In her speech, Bansal also highlighted the challenges faced by Dehradun, including challenges such as rapid population growth, rising temperatures, erratic monsoon patterns, and increasing pollution levels.
She presented a comprehensive overview of the measures being undertaken by Dehradun Municipal Corporation (Doon Nagar Nigam) to mitigate these issues. She reminded that, in January this year, a Public Spaces Consultation Conclave was convened, attracting participation from leading firms across the country. Based on expert recommendations, the Corporation has initiated several projects aimed at enhancing green infrastructure and promoting sustainable urban living. These include the development of parks equipped with amenities for children and senior citizens, the plantation of one lakh saplings across the municipal area during the ‘Green Fortnight’ through active public involvement, and the formulation of a dedicated green policy to guide future interventions.
Bansal added that further steps being undertaken by Nagar Nigam include incentivising waste segregation by offering subsidies on user charges to households that separate wet and dry waste and partnering with non-governmental organisations for efficient garbage collection. She asserted that through these multi-pronged efforts, the Municipal Corporation aims to foster community participation and build a more climate-resilient urban ecosystem in Dehradun.
