Uttar Pradesh is set to increase its green cover, with the state government’s mega plantation drive from July 1.
As part of the drive on chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s orders, 35 crore saplings will be planted across the state till August 15.
On August 15, to mark ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’, 75 saplings will be planted in each village of the state.
Chairing a high-level review meeting, CM Yogi said, “With the spirit of Indian culture of nature conservation, there is a need to take forward the tree plantation campaign as a mass movement. As the massive tree plantation drive is going to start, a detailed programme should be prepared to make this campaign a big success.”
Manoj Singh, ACS, department of environment, forest and climate change, said, “In the past few years, the state government has worked tirelessly to increase the green cover in Uttar Pradesh. There are a total of over 58,000 villages in Uttar Pradesh. The government plans to plant over 43.5 lakh saplings in a day on August 15.”
Efforts are being made by the forest department to increase the green cover in the state which will help in pollution control, he added.
HIGHER TARGET
According to the State of Forest Report 2021, 9.23% of the total geographical area of Uttar Pradesh has forest cover. In 2013, it was 8.82%. There has been an increase of 91 square kilometres in the total forest and tree cover during 2019.
The government has now set a target of further enhancing this area to 15% by 2030. For this, the government will plant 175 crore saplings in the next five years.
The Yogi government has been taking up intensive plantation during the monsoon since its first tenure. As a result, 101.49 crore saplings have been planted with the efforts of the government between 2017-18 and 2021-2022.
Indigenous plants like banyan, peepal, pakad, neem, bael, amla, mango, jackfruit, and drumstick will get preference during the plantation drive. The aim is to plant saplings based on the agro-climatic zone of the area concerned.
FOREST DEPT NODAL AGENCY
The nodal agency for plantation is the forest department. But apart from the forest department, 26 other departments will participate in the grand campaign.
The target of each department is already set.
The highest target of 12.60 crore and 12.32 crore saplings is for the forest and rural development department, respectively.
Apart from this, the target of the agriculture department and horticulture department is 2.35 crore and 1.55 crore saplings, respectively.
Environment fighters will play an important role in making this campaign a success. Farmers and beneficiaries of Prime Minister’s award in the environment, empowered force, women, disabled, low-income group, visually impaired, MGNREGA job cardholder, self-help group, village level and city development worker, forest worker, tribal-forest zones, Chief Minister Abhyudaya Yojana beneficiaries, teacher-students, and women will also be involved in the plantation process.
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