Preparations on for planting 62 lakh saplings in Prayagraj

PRAYAGRAJ : Even though monsoon is still months away all government departments in Sangam city have started preparations to meet their annual tree plantation target for 2021 as allocated by the state government.

The UP government has set a target of planting 62 lakh saplings in Prayagraj this time with all departments having different individual quota, said district administrative officials.

The forest department alone has been given a target of planting 17.50 lakh saplings while horticulture department has been given a separate target.

Divisional forest officer, Prayagraj, YP Shukla said saplings for the drive were being prepared and the plantations would be planned in a way that the plants get best watering during the monsoons.

Under horticulture department, 3.40 lakh saplings will be planted at the Chandra Shekhar Azad and 1 lakh saplings at the historical Khusro Bagh, officials shared.

The government has ordered geo tagging of all new saplings to be planted this year too, officials said. The task of planting around 30 lakh saplings has been entrusted upon the urban and rural development departments.

For this, preparations have already started at the departmental level.

Planting preparations have started in Chandra Shekhar Azad Park, Minto Park and Khusro Bagh. Azad Park’s superintendent Seema Singh Rana said 3.40 lakh saplings were being prepared in a nursery for the drive to begin once the monsoon arrive.

“We believe the saplings would be ready within the next 20 days,” she added.

The officials also plan to take help of private nurseries to successfully complete such a largescale drive.

Plants will be purchased from private nurseries. The exercise for this has already started in all nurseries at the set government price, they added.

The UP government plans to plant 30 crore saplings during its mega drive in July this year.

The government has named this year’s campaign as ‘Vriksharopan Jan Andolan -2021’ to widen the ambit of the progamme and convert it into a mass movement.

This year, the plantation figures will be 5 crore more than last year’s target of 25 crore, though the actual number turned out to be 25.8 crore. The state government has resolved to increase the state’s green cover by 15% in its five-year tenure due to which the target for plantation is being increased every year.

The government’s target was 25 crore saplings in 2020, 22 crore in 2019 and 11 crore in 2018. Over 5.7 crore saplings were planted in 2017.