Bengaluru: The tree census in Bengaluru, which was supposed to be completed by August after years of delay, has been postponed again as the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) extended the deadline to October.

The census that began in January has so far counted almost 250,000 trees in 54 districts.

While officials believe the city has nearly 2 million trees, the census of only 10 percent of the trees has been completed and is expected to gain momentum now. BBMP officials said technical glitches in the application used to collect the census data as well as extreme weather conditions hampered the progress and hence the deadline had to be extended.

“Initially, there was a delay as there were some technical glitches in the application used to record the data. Now, the application is stable and additional teams have been deployed to complete the census as soon as possible,” said BLG Swamy, deputy commissioner of forest (DCF), BBMP.

Another official added that extreme temperatures during the summer also kept census teams from working for a while in April and May.

“Because they have to be on site and record the details, it was a bit difficult in the summer,” the official said.

According to the census data collected so far, RR Nagar and South zones have the highest number of trees.

The assessors record the circumference of each tree, assign the tree an ID and note specific details such as the exact location, the tree species and the condition of the tree (dry or old).

Swamy said the census data could be crucial for the BBMP to prevent illegal felling of trees in the city and provide a scientific basis for deciding where to focus plantation drives.

“Because we have data on all the trees, we can more easily identify missing trees,” he said.

Officials further added that this will help in deciding whether tree felling permits can be issued in a particular area depending on the tree cover.

In 2020, the Karnataka High Court had directed the BBMP to conduct the tree census and set a deadline of three years. However, due to various reasons, the BBMP delayed the process and began the census only in January 2024.