Carbon Sequestration Studies at Nagpur Municipal Corporation‘s Water Treatment Plant at Pench I & II by Existing Greenbelt

Crossref, Index Copernicus International (ICI), Directory of Research Journal Indexing (DRJI),Scientific Indexing Services (SIS), CiteFactor, Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. Present study deals with the absorption of the atmospheric carbon in the study area selected by selecting planting methods that return biomass to the soil and enhance the conditions in which the carbon within the plants will be reduced to its elemental nature and stored in a stable state through Green belts. It is calculated that, Carbon Absorption by Green Belt Carbon absorption rate is approximated 49.27 kg per mature plant per year as per international standards. As per CPCB (2000) Guidelines, the trees to be planted are 1250 plants per acre, 1250 trees will absorb 1250 X 49.27 = 61587.50 kg of carbon per year per Acer. Project Site (Pench I & II 1.16 acre) has sequestered 18724 kg of carbon per Acre.


INTRODUCTION
Climate change has become a global issue. Almost all countries have paid attention towards alarming environmental concerns. Green plants act as a natural sink for carbon, which is one of the greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, or physical processes. Biosequestration or carbon sequestration through biological processes affects the global carbon cycle. The process of removal of carbon from the atmosphere and storing it in tree's parts is known as carbon sequestration. Kanth et al (1960) has given good account on green belt plant species selection for wind erosion, wind breaks and shelter -belts and Hu et. al. (2016) mentioned the root rather than leaf litter input drives soil carbon sequestration after afforestation on a marginal cropland in his article. This is done by selecting planting methods that return biomass to the soil and enhance the conditions in which the carbon within the plants will be reduced to its elemental nature and stored in a stable state through Green belts. Greenbelt sequestration practices may have positive effects on soil, air, and water quality, be beneficial to fauna. On degraded lands, an increase of 1 ton of soil carbon pool may increase crop yield by 20 to 40 kilograms per hectare of grasses, 10 to 20 kg/ ha. Biological carbon sequestration involves removal of carbon from atmosphere by using plants and its storage in plants in the form of biomass.
Carbon sequestration is the process involved in carbon capture and the long-term storage of atmospheric Carbon Dioxide (CO 2 ). Carbon sequestration describes long-term storage of carbon dioxide or other forms of carbon to either mitigate or defer global warming and avoid dangerous climate change. Chavan & Rasal (2012) has well explained the carbon sequestration potential and status of Peltophorunp terocarpum (DC.) K. Heyne in his research article. Carbon dioxide is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, or physical processes. Jha K K (2015) has studied the carbon sequestration rate in Teak plantation in tropical moist deciduous forest in India. Artificial processes have been devised to produce similar effects, including large-scale, artificial capture and sequestration of industrially produced CO 2 using carbon sinks. Bio-sequestration or carbon sequestration through biological processes affects the global carbon cycle.

STUDY AREA
Project Pench I & II at Nagpur Municipal Corporation's Water Treatment Plant, is located at Nagpur Maharashtra (Figure 1.). Nagpur has tropical savannah climate (Köppen climate classification) with dry conditions prevailing for most of the year. It receives about 163 mm of rainfall in June. The amount of rainfall is increased in July to 294 mm. Gradual decrease of rainfall has been observed from July to August (278 mm) and September (160 mm). The highest recorded daily rainfall was 304 mm on 14 July 1994. Summers are extremely hot, lasting from March to June, with May being the hottest month. Winter lasts from November to January, during which temperatures drop below 10 °C (50 °F). The highest recorded temperature in the city was 48 °C on May 19, 2015, while the lowest was 3.9 °C.

Pench Project: Phase-I
In this scheme 113.5 MLD water is drawn from Pench right bank canal by gravity to the Mahadulla pumping station. The raw water is pumped to the B.P.T. of capacity 5.7 lakhs liters through 1606 mm dia M.S. Rising Main of length 5624 m. from B.P.T. water is taken to the Gorewada balancing tank through 700 mm dia duplicate C.I. gravity mains each of length 400 m. from Gorewada Tank it is drawn to the conventional treatment plant of capacity 113.5 MLD through 1200 mm dia M.S. gravity main. The filtered and chlorinated water from the treatment plant is pumped to Seminary Hills G.S.R. of capacity 20.43 ML and Gittikhadan G.S.R. of capacity 5.94 ML. Sitabuldi G.S.R. is fed from Seminary Hills G.S.R. through 700 mm dia M.S. Feeder Main of length 4000 m.

Pench Project: Phase-II
Under Pench Phase -II a baby canal from Pench right bank canal to Mahadulla pumping station was constructed to draw additional 136 MLD of water. The raw water is pumped to the existing B.P.T. of capacity 5.70 lakh ltrs. through 1626 mm dia M.S. Rising Main of length 5.60 km from B.P.T. water is conveyed to Gorewada tank through

METHODOLOGY
Taxonomical observations and identification of plant species is done with the help of standard, regional and online floras and resources viz. Almeida, (1996Almeida, ( -2003; Bahadur (1993); Bhogaonkar & Devarkar, (1999); Flowers of India (2013); Hooker J. D. (1872-1897) and Singh & Karthikeyan, (2000). Estimation of carbon sequestration was done by using tree inventory data. Ravindranath & Ostwald (2008) method was used for calculating total carbon sequestered by all trees. This method was used as it is a non-destructive and is designed for tropical plant species. The estimation was done by using two parameters i.e. Height and Girth of a tree. Carbon sequestration calculation wad done using following steps-

Measurement of Height And Girth:
Height and girth of each tree species is measured during tree inventory at Pench I & II project, Nagpur.

Calculation of Above Ground Biomass:
This calculation is done by using data of height and girth of each species. In this step above ground biomass is determined by calculating volume of a tree and multiplying it by its wood density. (Wood density of a tree is specific for each species).

Calculation of Below Ground Biomass:
Below ground biomass is nothing but the mass of a root system of any tree. It is assumed that for any tropical tree, the below ground biomass is 26% of its above ground biomass. Hence it is calculated by using the above ground biomass values.

Calculation of Total Dry Biomass:
Total dry biomass is calculated by adding values of above and below ground biomasses.

Carbon Footprint and Carbon Count:
Carbon count and trees required are calculated by consumption of CO 2 on the basis of,

Vegetation Study and Tree Inventory
As per the CPCB guidelines (2000) the plant are falls under Western Plateau and hills in South zone, where average rainfall is about 1040 mm, climate is semi-arid to dry sub humid, soil is medium to shallow black. Forest observations and structure is mentioned by Bahadur (1993). Environmental impact studies are also important to define the stress on the ecology of the particular area (Devarkar et.al, 2018;Joshi et.al, 2019).
There The plantation is purposely watered on most of the nonconstruction areas of the sites. But road side plantation and garden, lawn is found well-watered.

Carbon Sequestration Through Existing Greenbelt
Carbon sequestered by existing Greenbelt was calculated by using Ravindranath and Ostwald (2008) method. During site visit it was observed that, there are many species of trees. For these species, standard average of wood density was used to determine above ground biomass. It was noted that trees in existing Greenbelt dominance of grasses, weeds and other trees are of dissimilar age group. It shows good mix of old and new plant species. Hence total dry biomass of these plant species is relatively good. Hence total carbon sequestered by existing Greenbelt is 18724 kg. (Refer Table 1 & Table 2 for details). The species in the existing green cover are the verge of maturity or matured and hence the carbon sequestration for future years will be change negligibly.