The district administration will soon launch an eco-friendly project to protect the banks of the Pampa river.
District Collector P.B. Noohu said the project involved planting bamboo and pineapple saplings along the river banks. Caving in of the banks had been posing a threat to the river system as well as habitations in the river basin, especially during floods.
Experts had attributed this phenomenon to indiscriminate sand-mining in the Pampa that led to lowering of the riverbed by four to six metres over the past two decades.
Many complaints
The administration had been receiving complaints of large-scale caving in of the river banks and the eco-friendly initiative was to protect it, Mr. Noohu said.
He said 25,000 bamboo and pineapple saplings would be planted on a single day including the project in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS).
The Collector directed the officials concerned to take steps to deploy workers for preparing the ground for planting the saplings. He said schoolchildren and MGNREGS workers would plant the saplings on the river banks in the block panchayat limits of Ranni, Koipram, and Elanthoor on September 5.
Panchayat authorities would take the saplings to various areas earmarked for planting and the Social Forestry Department would supply the saplings.
Forest personnel will inspect the river banks to identify sites for planting the saplings.
The administration is planning to extend the project to the other parts of the district in a phased manner.
