GREEN BELT FOR POLLUTION ABATEMENT

A new project has been launched to promote raising of green belt for pollution abatement and environmental improvement. In the first phase, 5 municipal corporations in Tamil Nadu State have been selected for intensive plantation programme involving local bodies and voluntary organizations.

Green belts are capable of sorbing air pollutants and forming sinks for pollutants. Leaves with their vast area in a tree crown, absorb pollutants on their surface, thus effectively reduce their concentrations in the ambient air. Often, the sorbed pollutants are incorporated in metabolic stream and thus air is purified. Plants grow in such a way as to function as pollutants sinks are referred to as green belts. An important aspect of the green belt, sometimes overlooked, is that the plants constituting green belts are living organisms with limits to their tolerence towards air pollutants.