Poongan!! Peepal!! Neem!! Guess what they are?
Near the Kotturpuram MRTS station, GCC or Greater Chennai Corporation has been growing urban forest in a small patch of land is well known. These above-mentioned names are some of the trees present there.
This urban forest would consume 43.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide and would give 200 tonnes of oxygen every year after it had matured. This was as per the official statistics
A human breathes about 9.5 tonnes of air in a year and oxygen just makes up to 23% of that air by mass. This was according to BBC Science Focus magazine. From each breathe a person just extracts a little over a third of oxygen and a total of about 740 kg of oxygen per year seven or eight trees worth)
Miyawaki scheme is a Japanese method of growing various varieties of trees on a small patch of land by using organic manure. This upcoming forest near Kotturpuram MRTS railways station on 20000 sq ft land is being done by this scheme. Truth is this site was previously a dumping yard for the construction debris. For the purpose of planting trees in this place, 1600 tonnes of construction debris was removed.
At the gap of 1metre, as many as 2000 saplings of 40 varieties were planted at this spot and this was mentioned by the corporation. Fruit-bearing trees apart from peepal, neem, and poongan would also be a part of the forest. This forest would consume 11.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide to give 4 tonnes of oxygen in the first year and this calculation was according to a consultant on already established studies.
The number of leaves, the thickness of trunk plus tree weight determines the extent of carbon dioxide consumed and this was pointed out by Dr S. Balaji, former principal chief conservator of forests.