STUDY ON THE CARBON SEQUESTRATION POTENTIAL OF TREES IN KONNAGAR MUNICIPALITY, W.B., INDIA A COLLABORATIVE VENTURE BEWEEN KONNAGAR MUNICIPALITY AND CLEAN BLUE PLANET CONSULTANCY SERVICES CONTENTS A. BACKGROUND B. TECHNICAL I. Introduction II. Project objectives III. Description of the study sites IV. Methodology V. Results & Discussion VI. Summary VII. Recommendation VIII. References Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 2 - Consultancy Services, Kolkata in collaboration with Konnagar Municipality Go for a carbon free green zone A. BACKGROUND The phenomenon of global warming has become a vital issue in the present ‘era’, which is keenly related to emission of carbon dioxide from varied sectors of human civilization ranging from household activities to industries. Even the shifting of the land use pattern generates considerable amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Trees play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Considering the extent and expansion rate of urban development coupled with industrialization, the safe guarding of the environment is a key issue. This can be achieved cost-effectively by carbon sequestering through plantation and ecorestoration of the dumping areas of cities and towns. A plantation or a forest may be a “source” or a “sink” of carbon depending on the volume and relative density of the tree species, microbial load of the soil and climatic condition of the area. So a project was framed to know the stored carbon in different tree species inhabiting Konnagar Municipality area. Konnagar is a city and a Municipality in Hooghly District in the maritime state of West Bengal, India encompassing 20 wards in the Konnagar Municipal Area. It is under Uttarpara Police Station in the Serampore sub-division. In line with this primary objective, Dr. Abhijit Mitra, former Head, Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta and Advisor of Techno India University, Salt Lake Campus (Kolkata) and Advisor of Clean Blue Planet Consultancy service visited Konnagar on 27th June, 2015 to discuss in details the modalities of the project with Hon’ble Chairman of Konnagar Municipality, Sri Bappaditya Chatterjee. A group discussion took place to carry out the project objectives by involving the schools teachers and students of Konnagar, and Shri Bappaditya Chatterjee decided Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 3 - Consultancy Services, Kolkata in collaboration with Konnagar Municipality Go for a carbon free green zone to extend all infrastructural facilities to Dr. Abhijit Mitra and his team members. A team was constituted involving researchers of Techno India University, Clean Blue Planet Consultancy services, staff and associated members of Konnagar Municipality, teachers and students of several schools in Konnagar Municipality (Table 1). TABLE 1: Team members at a glance Name Designation Qualification Duty assigned by the PI Field sampling Former Head, Technical guidance Dr. Abhijit Mitra Department of Marine Chemical analysis (P.I. and Chief Science, University of M.Sc., Ph.D Interpretation consultant of the Calcutta and Advisor of project) Clean Blue Planet Report writing Consultancy Services Dr. Sufia Zaman Field sampling (Consultant and Adjunct Faculty, Chemical analysis M.Sc., Ph.D Research Head of Techno India University Interpretation the project) Report writing Smt. Shampa Mitra Field sampling (Technical Head of Research Scholar, Chemical analysis M.Sc. the project) Techno India University Report compilation Mr. Prosenjit Pramanick Research Scholar, Field sampling (Research Officer of M.Sc. Techno India University Chemical analysis the project) Mr. Subhasmita Sinha Field sampling Research Scholar, (Research Officer of M.Sc. Chemical analysis Calcutta University the project) Ms. Upasana Datta Field sampling (Technical staff of Research Scholar, Chemical analysis M.Sc. the project) Techno India University Awareness generation Smt. Rupa Banerjee Field sampling (Technical staff of Research Scholar, M.Sc. Chemical analysis the project) Techno India University Ms. Nabonita Pal Field sampling (Technical staff of Research Scholar, Quiz material M.Sc. the project) Techno India University preparation Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 4 - Consultancy Services, Kolkata in collaboration with Konnagar Municipality Go for a carbon free green zone Sri Deb Kumar Samanta Field Staff, Class X Field sampling (Field staff of the Clean Blue Planet (appeared) project) Consultancy Services Co-ordination of the Konnagar Uccha project Dr. Kanchan Panda Vidyalaya Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Konnagar Uccha Co-ordination of the Sri Bhaskar Vidyalaya project Chongdar Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Uccha Co-ordination of the Sri Kamalakshya Vidyalaya project Chakraborty Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Uccha Co-ordination of the Vidyalaya project Sri Motilal Murmu Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Uccha Co-ordination of the Smt. Mahua Singha Vidyalaya project Roy Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Co-ordination of the Rajendra Smriti Sri Tulsidas project Vidyalaya Bandyopadhyaya Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Rajendra Smriti Sri Sudipto Shankar project Vidyalaya Mani Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Rajendra Smriti project Sri Rajib Chatterjee Vidyalaya Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Rajendra Smriti project Smt. Anjali Biswas Vidyalaya Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Hindu Uccha project Smt. Shibani Sarkar Balika Vidyalaya Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Hindu Uccha Smt. Anjana project Balika Vidyalaya Sengupta Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 5 - Consultancy Services, Kolkata in collaboration with Konnagar Municipality Go for a carbon free green zone Konnagar Hindu Uccha Co-ordination of the Smt. Ruma Balika Vidyalaya project Majumdar Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Co-ordination of the Sri Aurobindo Dr. Asish Ghosh project Vidyapith Hazra Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Sri Aurobindo Sri Haripada project Vidyapith Murmu Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Sri Aurobindo project Sri Subhasish Saha Vidyapith Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Sri Aurobindo Sri Niloy Shankar project Vidyapith Banerjee Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Kalyan Smt. Nibha project Parishad Bandopadhyay Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Kalyan Smt. Ganga Saha project Parishad (Bose) Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Kalyan Smt. Rituparna project Parishad Palui Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Kalyan Smt. Soma project Parishad Talukdar Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Kalyan Smt. Namita project Parishad Murmu Identification of the Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Nagendra Kundu Sri Swapan Kumar project Vidyamandir Nag Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Nagendra Kundu project Sri Prabir Kumar Vidyamandir Identification of the Sarkar Assistant Teacher floral species Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 6 - Consultancy Services, Kolkata in collaboration with Konnagar Municipality Go for a carbon free green zone Co-ordination of the Smt. Subhra Nagendra Kundu project Bhattacharya Vidyamandir Identification of the Biswas Assistant Teacher floral species Co-ordination of the Konnagar Ashalata Smt. Munmun project Balika Vidyalaya Mukherjee Identification of the Head Teacher floral species Konnagar Ashalata Co-ordination of the Balika Vidyalaya project Smt. Basanti Tudu Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Ashalata Co-ordination of the Balika Vidyalaya project Smt. Soma Mitra Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Ashalata Co-ordination of the Smt. Promila Balika Vidyalaya project Majumdar Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Ashalata Co-ordination of the Balika Vidyalaya project Smt. Haimanti Maji Assistant Teacher Identification of the floral species Konnagar Municipality participants Name Designation Job description Sri Bappaditya Chatterjee Chairman Concept development, coordination, awareness Sri Sujit Kar Staff Field survey, awareness and coordination Sri Aloke Mukherjee Staff Co-ordination Sri Samar Ranjan Dhar Staff Co-ordination Sri Manoj Saha Staff Co-ordination Sri Ranjan Ghosh Member Concept initiation, co- ordination, awareness __________________________________ ______________________________ Signature of Chairman, Signature of P.I of the Project Konnagar Municipality Report Prepared by Dr. Abhijit Mitra and Dr. Sufia Zaman on behalf of Clean Blue Planet - 7 -