Urban Forestry in Managing Environmental Health:A Case Study from Urban Kolkata

Abstract

Avenue trees in urban areas are very important concern in view of infrastructural development with ever-increasing population and diminishing forest areas for commercial uses and degrading quality of urban living. Trees are very useful to improve the quality of ambient environment by sequestrating carbon, supporting biodiversity, accumulating dust and controlling the elevated temperature in urban areas mostly in summer days. Besides the aesthetic value, variety and distribution of roadside trees also indicate the environmental health of urban living. The present study aimed to estimate the avenue tree species diversity, their abundance and distribution in two selected roads of south Kolkata, i.e., Rasbehari Avenue and Prince Anwar Shah Road. A total of 65 species of avenue trees belonging to 23 families were recorded from the study area. Result showed that carbon sequestration potentiality varied due to the difference in distribution of abundant avenue tree species of two selected roads. Native and key stone tree species showed better efficiency in accumulating dust particles based on their leaf morphology. Bird nests and their supporting avenue trees were significantly positively correlated showing nesting preferences for native trees.