Collector S. Suresh Kumar has stressed the need for spreading awareness among children about the importance of environment protection and motivating them to plant saplings on the premises of their schools and houses to make small but significant contribution to improving greenery.
The fact that every plant and tree was crucial for maintaining ecological balance should be remembered by all, he said while inaugurating the 63rd ‘Vana Mahotsav’ at the Government Urdu High School here on Tuesday. It was targeted to plant one lakh saplings in the district on Tuesday and the involvement of people was highly essential for achieving the goal.
‘Vana Mahotsav’ programme is being organised every year for planting saplings on a massive scale for improving the green cover, the importance of which is growing with each passing day as the planet faced serious environmental challenges in the form of global warming and other calamities. Additional Principal Conservator of Forests (Guntur Circle) P. Bhaskar Reddy said the responsibility of protecting the environment was vested with every citizen by the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, and the Forest Act, and there was no more scope for complacency as the consequences of climate changes were already being felt across the globe.
Superintendent of Police (Guntur urban) A. Ravi Krishna, Additional Joint Collector K. Sarada Devi, Divisional Forest Officer Sk. Salam, and Municipal Commissioner K. Sudhakar were present.
Novel programme
In a unique programme aimed at protecting the environment, anganwadi workers undergoing training on the Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer’s Chetana campus at Chowdavaram, rolled hundreds of ‘seed balls’, made of clay and seed of medicinal plants, down the hill coinciding with the ‘Vana Mahotsav’.
The seed will germinate and grow into plants and trees several years later. These trees will absorb the pollutants, thereby contributing to cleaning up of the atmosphere.
On the occasion, Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer founder N. Manga Devi said a similar programme was conducted earlier and it yielded encouraging results.The seed balls rolled down the hills would grow without much human support and a large number of them could be raised without any great effort.
Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer principal K. Marudwathi was present.
