13 crore new saplings planted across state

MUMBAI : The forest department said it has planted 13 crore saplings across the state as part of the monsoon plantation programme, meeting its intended target four days ahead of the deadline. Separately, the state mangrove cell also planted 2.8 lakh mangrove saplings in wetlands in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR).

Between July 1 and July 27, the plantation figure stood at 13,00,48,005 in the state. While 1.64 lakh saplings were planted in Mumbai suburban against the target of 1.77 lakh (92.91% plantation target achieved), only 250 saplings were planted in Mumbai city against the target of 1,734 saplings (7.21% of the target).

“The mega plantation drive has proved to be a success for the third consecutive year, and I thank all stakeholders for this amazing achievement. The fact that we could complete the target four days before schedule is only because of people’s active participation,” said Sudhir Mungantiwar, forest minister.

Environmentalists refuted the claims stating that data regarding the survival rate of saplings needed to be made public. “Afforestation exercises such as this is just a public relations campaign. We hope that the data for sapling survival is made public on the website by year-end,” said Stalin D, director, NGO Vanashakti.

The Mumbai mangrove conservation unit (MMCU), constituted under the state mangrove cell, said it planted 2,88,500 mangrove saplings in Mumbai, Thane and Navi Mumbai wetland sites.

The maximum number of saplings planted was reported in Nanded at 78.71 lakh, followed by Nashik at 69.9 lakh, Chandrapur at 66 lakh, Yavatmal at 54 lakh, and Gadchiroli district at 53 lakh.