Not glitz but green is the need of Ahmedabad city now. The soothing comfort of trees and green canopy are sorely missed by people who would want to walk in the greens for respite front the concrete jungle that the city is becoming. Over the years, the city's green cover has remain a neglected affair for Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). Just take a look at the data released by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), Gandhinagar- the forest cover of Ahmedabad has reduced from 168 sq km in 2001 to 144 sq km in 2005, while that of the otherwise "green" Gandhinagar has reduced from 142 sq km in 2001 to a mere 42 sq km till 2006. The study was conducted by Gujarat forest department over the last few years and Ahmedabad district's tree cover is only 1.65 per cent. According to the latest ecological footprint study conducted by the International Institute for Geo-Information Science and Earth Observation Netherlands in March 2008, Ahmedabad would require an additional tree cover of 12,856 hectares to absorb 1,32,564.7 tonnes of carbon dioxide released into our breathing space annually by the 14.72 lakh vehicles clogging our roads. According to PR Shukla, faculty at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad , traditionally, towns in Gujarat were interspersed with green spaces but these areas have shrunk in the wake of poor public administration and unregulated property development . The greater AUDA area had over 400 village ponds and together with Sabarmati river and its tributaries , accounted for three per cent of AUDA area. The old AMC has 30 ponds, including large lakes like Kankaria and Chandola. "There were 150 ponds in AMC area and over three fourths have now dried up and several are encroached upon. The economic and ecological wisdom rests in reviving the old ponds, besides creating new green spaces and water bodies, if the threat of global warming has to be averted," said Shukla. On the greening of the city, deputy municipal commissioner of AMC, ZA Sacha said, "Greenery is good city planning and we are committed to bring Ahmedabad city in the league of green city in the next five years; we have already prepared a blueprint in this direction and started working on it." The growing number of skyscrapers, swanky cars on the roads, with the hustle and bustle of malls and multiplexes are enticing, but lack of greenery is exhausting . Moreover, the city does not have enough number of trees to fight the noxious gases from different polluting sources. Environmentalist Mahesh Pandya said, "Ahmedabad has very less number of trees for the desired per capita cover. Even the civic body does not have proper record of number of trees to curb the illegal felling of trees by the builders' lobby. During summer, one can feel the high temperature in the absence of green cover and no one seems to be concerned about this alarming situation."