AHMEDABAD: In order to achieve the norm of minimum 15% tree cover, the forest department is planning to adopt the public private partnership (PPP) model to increase the tree cover in eight municipal corporations and 159 nagar palikas in the state.

The recent tree census taken up by the social forestry division of the forest department revealed that there were 33 lakh trees in the eight municipal corporations. The forest officials said that going by the minimum number of 15% green cover against the total geographical area, the eight municipal corporations need another 56.4 lakh tress of which Ahmedabad city requires the maximum of 13 lakh trees to achieve the target of 15%. This was followed by Surat which requires 12.37 lakh more trees.