Wet Gurgaon thanks Aravali greens

Gurgaon: Waterlogged roadas, traffic snarls and overflowing sewers are some side affects of the rain that residents of the Millennium city have to face every time it pours hand, but they are but they are not complaining. The reason: Gurgaon has seen a good monsoon this season. With 984 mm rain recorded this year, the satellite town has left even capital behind. Delhi has recorded 598.5 mm of rainfall at Safdarjung observatory.

According to a report by the Gurgaon wing of the India Meteorological Department (IMD), till August 27, Gurgaon recorded 530 mm of rainfall. “While rainfall in Delhi has been 455.1 mm in August this year, Gurgaon is far ahead. The city also recorded a very wet July wityh262 mm rainfall. This has been an exceptionally good season for the city,” said a Met official. The report mentioned August 22 as the wettest day in the year with 162 mm of rainfall.

The day is closely followed by July 4 with 110 mm of rainfall. Except for 32 mm of rainfall that was recorded in February and May, July and August account for 952 mm of rainfall alone.

While Met officials maintained that the good monsoon in the city was primarily due to the entire NCR region experienced a good monsoon this year, the credit is also being given to increased forest cover in Aravalis. The Forest survey of India (FSI), Dehradun, in its recently- Published India State of Forest Report 2009, has revealed that the total forest cover in Gurgaon has gone up by 11 sq km from 218 in 2005 to 229 sq km in 2007. “According to the FSI report, the total geographical area of Gurgaon (including Mewat) is 2,766 sq km and the percentage of total forest cover in 2005 was 7.88%. In 2007, the forest cover rose to 8.28%” said Devendra Rao, forest range officer, Gurgaon. “A check on mining activities in the eco-fragile Aravali region has helped us achieve this green cover,” said K C Meena, forest conservator.

Residents, however, lamented that the huge amount of rainwater went waste in the absence of proper harvesting, “ While there is always talks of collecting rainwater, very little happens on ground,” said Vivek Kamboj, an environment activist.