The green cover in Mysuru district is set to increase with the launch of Koti Vruksha Andolana, under which 1 crore saplings will be planted across the State during the first week of July.
A forest department initiative, the campaign will culminate with the planting of 8 crore saplings all over the State over an extended period of time and in Mysuru district, the authorities will plant 8 lakh saplings during the week and 31 lakh during the course of the year.
While the State-wide campaign was inaugurated by Forest Minister Ramanath Rai recently, the district in-charge Minister H.C.Mahadevappa launched the district programme on Saturday during which 251 saplings were planted along the Outer Ring Road (ORR) near R.T. Nagar.
Deputy Conservator of Forests V. Karikalan said that Forest Department would plant 35,000 saplings in Mysuru city alone spread over 175 hectares of land as part of the current campaign. This will cover public places like hospitals, schools, government offices and residential layouts.
About 3,000 saplings will be planted on the campus of the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI) while 2,500 saplings will be planted at Lalitadripura Layout, said Mr. Karikalan.
"We have 60 programmes in the pipeline during the current week, in addition to 25 programmes which we have already conducted, and are confident of planting 8 lakh saplings," he added. About 31 lakh saplings are available for Mysuru division and they will be planted in a phase-wise manner which will help increase the green cover of Mysuru district to 20 per cent of the total geographical area. At present, Mysuru district has about 16 per cent green cover including the forest areas. The emphasis is on indigenous species and fruit-bearing trees.
