Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu said he was contemplating to give weightage for planting saplings in marks obtained by school children, to motivate them to contribute to improving greenery.
He would also order that promotions and transfers be given and jobs provided on the basis of the number of saplings planted by the individuals.
“My aim is to improve the greenery from the present 26 per cent (forest cover 23 per cent and three per cent social forestry) to 50 per cent by the year 2029. It is, therefore, imperative that each person should be made to plant as many saplings as possible in his or her lifetime”, he observed.
Launching the one crore saplings’ planting programme ‘Vanam Manam’ as part of Mission Haritandhra Pradesh at Sunkollu village in Nuzvid Mandal of Krishna district on Friday, Mr. Naidu said that it was his endeavour that every individual should plant 10 saplings and also nurture them so that the greenery would improve at a faster pace.
The government focused on afforestation of 13 lakh hectares of degraded forest and on planting saplings in another 40 lakh hectares of plain areas to give a fillip to the green drive. Horticulture crops should be preferred in the plains.
Geo-tagging likely
To monitor the growth of saplings, geo-tagging would be done and people would be encouraged to post details of their contributions online. Due emphasis was laid on growing medicinal plants and increasing the groundwater levels.
The farm ponds dug on a large scale helped in raising the groundwater level by 2.5 metres, which yielded 230 tmcft of water. With this 23 lakh acres could be irrigated across the State.
The Chief Minister said he would instruct all departments to spend time on planting saplings and protecting the existing ones on the fourth Saturday of every month to raise greenery in a mission mode.
Speaking after launching ‘Vanam Manam’ at Kambalakonda eco-tourism park in Visakhapatnam, Minister for BC Welfare K. Ravindra emphasised the importance of community participation in the greening of the State. “The district is aiming at planting 20 lakh trees as part of the programme that is taken up annually through the rainy season,” District Collector Pravin Kumar said.
In Srikakulam, Minister K. Atchannaidu said the administration was assigned to take up plantation programme in a big way all along the coastal area which was stretched to 197 km in the district. The District Water Management Agency was allowed to utilise the services of workers under NREGA programme.
“People’s movement”
Terming the state government’s ‘Vanam Manam’ programme as a people’s movement, Minister for Environment and Forests Bojjala Gopalakrishna Reddy highlighted in Tirupati the plans envisaged by the government to achieve the ‘green cover’ target.
He said plans were afoot to raise greenery in vacant forest area spread over about 8,200 hectares with the focus on its growth and protection.
Participating in the Vanam Manam program in Nellore district, Municipal Administration Minister P. Narayana expressed concern over comparatively lesser forest cover in the State.
Stating that Kerala was far ahead with 49 per cent forest cover, he said the green drive could be achieved only with the overall participation of the people. About eight lakh saplings were planted on Friday as part of the programme in Nellore district.
