Besides creating permanent assets in rural areas in the form of ponds that greatly improve groundwater table, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has ensured new greenery even on barren lands and along roads.
To increase forest cover, Collector M. Karunakaran mooted a special programme by clubbing planting of tree saplings on hitherto barren government and private lands, forest and horticulture departments and the MGNREGS. Under this programme, services of the labourers hired under this scheme can be utilised for planting saplings and watering them for the first three years.
Apart from planting ‘karuvel’ saplings in village tanks, the scheme ensures planting of saplings along roads and also on government and private poramboke lands. While the trees like karuvel give revenue to local bodies, fruit-bearing trees grown on private and government lands also give revenue to the individual farmer and to local body concerned.
When Dr. Karunakaran visited one of the government lands at Pandiapuram in Vellankulam panchayat in Melaneelithanallur union on Tuesday, which has been covered under this programme, he was impressed with the manner in which the saplings had been maintained.
On an area of six acres of government land, 2,436 tree saplings, including teak, neem, nilavembu and thespesia, had been planted.
“By creating 890 man days through the MGNREGS, the trees had been grown here and we’ve spent Rs. 3.17 lakh so far for making this barren land green at Pandiapuram,” said Dr. Karunakaran.
The one-year-old teak and neem saplings are now 10-foot-tall, thanks to the regular monitoring and care. Moreover, vegetable saplings have also been planted as inter-crops.
While 384 tree planting works were completed in 2013-2014 at a cost of Rs. 6.60 crore, 28 works were taken up in the next fiscal on an outlay of Rs. 1.32 crore and administrative sanction to the tune of Rs. 3.74 crore has been given for the current fiscal to complete 78 works. Precisely, over 4.25 lakh tree saplings have been planted under MGNREGS during the past three years.
“Besides planting as many saplings as we can, we’re taking care of the young plants by watering them periodically by deploying the labourers hired under MGNREGS exclusively for the purpose. Thus, we’ve ensured 92 per cent survival rate, which is the highest in the State,” he said.
