The Social Forestry wing has commenced efforts to transform a portion of the Sainik School campus at Kazhakuttam into a green lung in the city. As many as 35,000 saplings of various species have been planted on 50 acres of land spread across three plots on the school campus. The sapling planting has been taken up in accordance with an agreement arrived at prior to the commencement of the NH-66 bypass widening project.
The saplings have been planted to compensate for 4,200 trees, as per official statistics, which were axed for the four-laning of the stretch from Kazhakuttam to Mukkola. Following hectic discussions, it was then decided to retain 491 trees along the median and on the utility corridor.
According to P.K. Jayakumar Sharma, Deputy Conservator of Forests (Social Forestry), several varieties of plants are being grown in the area which had only acacia trees earlier. The plants that are grown include fruit-bearing species such as jamun, bullet wood tree and mango, flowering varieties such as kanikonna (laburnum) and mandaram , medicinal species such as neem, gamhar , red sanders and Indian sandalwood, and timber species such as teak, rosewood, mahagony and Portia tree, besides bamboos, reeds and palms. “While they could never replace the beauty of the shade trees that once existed on either side of the bypass stretch, the plantation that is being developed at Kazhakuttam is bound to be a noteworthy achievement. Measures will be adopted to nurture the plants during the next five years,,” he says.
3,000 more
Another 3,000 saplings will be planted on four acres of land on the Sports Hub (Greenfield Stadium) premises at Karyavattom. It has also decided to plant around 6,000 trees on either side of the bypass in the long term.
