India, March 13 -- The Delhi Tree Authority (DTA) has proposed real-time monitoring of the capital's trees and green cover through drone surveys and has written to the Forest Survey of India to explore the exercise.

In a meeting held in January, the minutes of which were made available online on the forest department's website recently, the DTA noted that the budget for a tree census was revised by the Forest Research Institute (FRI) from Rs.50 lakh to Rs.3.9 crore.

The authority has asked the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to release the first instalment of Rs.2.9 crore for phase-1 of the census, according to minutes dated February 17.

"FRI was appointed to conduct the census in compliance with Supreme Court direct...