Come winter of 2019 and 48 hillocks in the district will don red, yellow, pink and blue colours with trumpet trees of Delonix, Tabe
buia and Rela species. The unique Flowering Hills pilot project, considered first of its kind in the country, was launched at the foot of Kannikalamma hillock of Velkur village of GD Nellore mandal, 8 km from here, on Thursday.
District Collector P.S. Pradyumna, who grounded the afforestation project by dribbling seeds and watering the soil, said that the district has a green cover of 31%.
The Flowering Hills project will cover nearly one lakh hectares, while 51 lakh saplings were already planted with substantial survival rate in the district in 2017.
The pattern of dribbling of seeds was planned in such a way that the hillocks, currently with sparse or no vegetation, would shine bright with pleasant flowers above the verdant growth of trees.
The project will be handled by the social forestry division of the forest department, involving students, youth and nature lovers in a big way.
Divisional Forest Officer G. Srinivasulu said that with copious rains this year, the project has ample potential to see early results thanks to perfect soil moisture and germination levels.
He said that the trumpet tree species with flowering feature would grow up to a remarkable height of over 20 metres forming best contribution to the solid forest cover.
People's representatives, teachers, students and farmers would be roped in to extensively ground the project.
