Chandigarh Forests
Department of Forest & Wildlife
UT Administration
Chandigarh
Department of Forest & Wildlife
Chandigarh is a modern city and forestry in Chandigarh is different from traditional practices of Forestry in many ways. Urban forestry advocates the role of trees as a critical part of urban infrastructure. From management point of view, the Forests in Chandigarh may be categorized in Wildlife Sanctuary Area and City Reserved & Unclassed Forests Areas.
The objective of management of forests in sanctuary area is to conserve the Soil & Moisture in the Catchment of Sukhna Lake and to improve the Wildlife habitat inside Wildlife Sanctuary (WLS) and Reserved & Unclassed Forests of Chandigarh are to maintain and improve the greenery in the city, providing Ex-Situ Plant Research Areas
In urban forestry providing various recreational avenues to the citizens, such as NagarVan, Shivalik Arboretum, Butterfly Park, Peacock Park, City Bird Sanctuary, Botanical Garden etc. One of these creations is “NAGAR VAN- CITY FOREST”
Before the development of City forests, this part of lake forest was considered as degraded forest. Maximum area of forest was submerged in the sewage water .Due to sewage water stagnation valuable tree species were dried up and also posing threat to the valuable flora and fauna of this region.
To protect the flora and fauna, forest department decided to treat the sewage water through the traditional method. Department surveyed the area and channelized the stagnated sewage water into shallow water bodies. Natural cleaning materials like iron ores, rice straw, gravel etc has been put inside the channel constructed to channelize the water.After passing through the cleaning process, bio-purified water stores in shallow water bodies further which is use to irrigate the area. Now aquatic life is flourishing in these shallow water bodies.CPCC also tested the water samples and results shows that there is appreciable reduction in the BOD and COD levels in treated water as compare to untreated water near the inlet point.
Nagar-Van is opened for public last year by Chandigarh administration.It is spreading over a sprawling 100 hectares and situated near the Heart of city beautiful i.e.sukhna lake.It has been established under Nagar-van udyan yojana,which is an urban forestry scheme of ministry of environment,forests & climate change.
To attract the visitors many facilities like earthen tracks, shallow water bodies, open air gym, kids play section, Meditation Hut, public convenience etc. has been provided.Natural looking wooden benches has been made by using dead and dry trees and placed along the tracks.
Nagar Van is part of Lake Forest which provides ideal habitat to the vast variety of flora and fauna. Visitors can easily spot Sambhar (Rusa unicolor), Chittal (Axis axis), Neelgai (Blue bull), Wild Boar etc. moving
along the walking trails.Jackal, Indian civet, Porcupine,Common mongoose etc. also found in this forest area.
Reptiles including snakes like Cobra, Rat snake, Common Krait, Russell’s viper, Indian python and common monitor (Gho) also present in this area.
