Collector M. Karunakaran commenced planting of saplings in view of the ‘World Day to Combat Desertification’ at Munneerpallam near here on Wednesday.
As the State government has planned to conduct massive planting of saplings across Tamil Nadu by involving Department of Forest and utilising the funds from Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MNREGP), it was decided to plant 20,000 tree saplings on the government lands and along important highways in the village panchayats on ‘World Day to Combat Desertification’ that falls on June 17.
After conducting a preparatory meeting on Monday last, digging of pits for planting the saplings was completed on Tuesday by the labourers hired under MNREGP. Subsequently, Department of Forest supplied 19,800 tree saplings while voluntary organisations sponsored 5,200 saplings, which were planted on Wednesday.
Dr. Karunakaran planted tree saplings at Munneerpallam near Palayamkottai in the presence of H. Vijayakumar, Project Director, District Rural Development Agency.
The Collector was present there and seen encouraging the labourers until they completed planting of 2,200 saplings.
“I’ll pay surprise visits to this place whenever I happen to cross this spot to ensure the regular watering of the saplings,” the Collector told the labourers.
He said that the scheme on planting of 3 lakh trees in three years as part of the Chief Minister’s birthday celebrations had shown encouraging improvement as 1 lakh saplings had been planted during 2014-2015 and 97,987 saplings during 2015-2016.
“Before the commencement of northeast monsoon this year, the entire target will be achieved,” Dr. Karunakaran said.
Mr. Vijayakumar said just over 25,000 tree saplings had been planted in all 425 village panchayats in the district on Wednesday alone.
