India's Forest Research Institute is organizing a count of all trees across Delhi, India's capital territory containing the city of New Delhi, amid a controversy about illegal tree felling. The decision to launch the census was recently confirmed by India's Supreme Court, with the judges instructing the institute to work towards increasing the city's green cover.

The project has been given a timeline of around four years and an estimated budget of around 44.3 million Indian rupees (over $516,600 or €455,800).

In that time, the tree census takers are expected to do more than just count the trees in the territory. Experts and volunteers should also sort the trees into species, record their height, girth, health status and exact location. Most importantly for climate scientists, they are to record the so-called carbon mass of the tree — the carbon absorbed from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

India aims to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070, and trees have an........

© Deutsche Welle