Getting every official to nurture greenery

Officials to spend a couple of hours every Friday to water saplings planted under Harita Haaram

Green thumb: Collector of Suryapet District K. Surendra Mohan watering a sapling planted as part of Haritha Haaram.

HYDERABAD: With the sun beating down harshly the saplings whither with little attention paid. And all the effort taken to plant it goes down the drain if the sapling is not nurtured. Millions of such saplings don’t see the light of the day due to lack of love for the plants.

The Suryapet district administration has realised this flaw and has taken up the task of protecting 91 lakh saplings that were planted during the Haritha Haaram programme. As a part of this initiative, two hours every Friday would be dedicated to protection of these saplings by watering and also removing the weeds around it.

Area of responsibility

“We are making officials responsible by allocating the areas to each of them. Involving the local people they would water plant every Friday as a part of the Green Day,” Suryapet District Collector K. Surendra Mohan said. He himself watered the plant on National Highway-65 near Pillalamarri village in Suryapet mandal thus pushing the idea forward.

He says people should take care of plants planted in front of their houses, shops and homestead plants. All officials will take care of avenue plants, plants on their office premises and also involve local public representatives and members of self help groups.

Low forest cover

With the area being backward, unfortunately only 3.2% of the district is covered by forest and the effort is to increase it to 33%, says the Collector. During ‘Telanganaku Haritha Haaram’ programme 91 lakh saplings were planted in 3558 sites in the district and 70 lakhs plants were Geo-tagged and tied-up with NREGS wage seekers for watch and ward. The Government was giving ₹5 to each plant per month for maintenance and this money has to be utilised fully to yield good results. He said about 10 lakh plants that could not survive were also replaced.

The value of protecting a plant is being inculcated among schoolchildren, Mr. Surendra Mohan said and added that students would take care of the plants in their schools. “Our effort is to ensure 100 % protection and growth of the saplings.”