The forest department will plant trees along some roads in Calcutta, making a departure from the usual practice of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation solely planting trees.

The trees to be planted will be about 15ft tall and aged between six and 10, a forest department official said. The department will nurture the trees for two years from the day of plantation before handing over their custody to the civic body.

The forest department, according to naturalists, is better equipped to deal with avenue plantation than the CMC and the move to involve the department in planting trees could augur well for the city.

The roads where the department will plant trees are: Southern Avenue, the Rashbehari Avenue-Ruby connector, Park Street, Ballygunge Circular Road, Gariahat Road, Syed Amir Ali Avenue, EM Bypass and on stretches of Alipore.

The CMC has given its nod after the department wrote to it. The decision to involve the department was taken in a meeting at the civic headquarters after Cyclone Amphan where officials of the forest and environment departments were present.

“We have given our nod to the forest department. They can start planting trees along these roads,” Debashis Kumar, a member of the CMC’s board of administrators who is in charge of parks and gardens and urban forestry departments, said.

Forest minister Rajib Banerjee said the department would plant trees along close to 100km of roads in Calcutta. “This is the first time that the forest department will get involved in planting trees in Calcutta on such a large scale,” Banerjee said.

The department plans to plant about 5,000 trees within Calcutta, a forest official said.

Thousands of trees in the city were uprooted when Cyclone Amphan struck on May 20. Some estimates have put the number of uprooted trees at over 5,000 while some have put it over 15,000.

No one actually counted how many trees fell and the numbers are rough estimates, a CMC official said.

A naturalist told Metro that he expected a scientific approach in planting the trees. “Species selection is very important. If there is little space then trees that do not have a broad canopy should be planted. Also, a diverse range of trees should be planted,” he said.

The forest department should ensure that the space surrounding the location of the tree is not covered with concrete paver blocks. That will allow the surface roots to expand, the naturalist said.

The forest department has decided to plant a variety of trees, including Bokul, Arjun, Neem and Tabebuia rosea, an official said.

The department will ensure the trees are not destroyed by cattle or human vandalism and that they are properly watered during the two years they will be in the department’s custody, the official said. “We will keep props and guards around the trees.”