Officials go all out to make Haritha Haram a smooth affair

Places being identified to plant saplings; watch and ward staff appointed

Stocktaking: Collector Yogitha Rana inspecting the saplings being grown at a nursery in Nizamabad district on Sunday.

Efforts are on to plant lakhs of saplings as part of the second phase of Haritha Haram beginning July 1. The district administration is busy chalking out plan to meet this year’s target.

All the concerned departments are working overtime to identify locations to plant the saplings while pits are being dug at several places since June 15. The process will continue till June 25. Also, the process of appointing watch and ward staff to look after the saplings after they are planted is on.

The staff appointed for the purpose will be paid ₹194 per day for watering and protecting 400 saplings each under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

The Irrigation Department, on the other hand, will take care of the saplings on either side of the tanks repaired under Mission Kakatiya Phase I and II, while Excise Department will rope in people from Goud community to plant toddy plants at several identified places.

Dead seedlings replaced

This year, the saplings at the nurseries maintained by the Forest Department were damaged owing to monkey menace and heat wave. But the District Water Management Agency put in all effort to replace the dead seedlings with regular supervision. Other problems faced were pests, non-germination of seeds and lack of water that led to slow growth of seedlings. Initially, making ready 1.80 crore saplings to be planted as targeted was a tough task. But continuous monitoring of nurseries by the authorities gave a new hope. “Mortality among plants is common. Fresh seeds were sown in place of those saplings that died. It is a continuous process. We are raising 150 lakh plants of different varieties in 117 nurseries spread across the district. The saplings will be ready to be planted by the time the programme is launched,” says V.S.N.V. Prasad, District Forest Officer.

Besides, the DWMA is also raising another 60 lakh plants in 47 nurseries which are run under the EGS. Some of them are established in private lands taken on lease and managed with the help of the officials from Forest Department.

For weeding, watering, grading and shifting, workers are engaged under the Employment Guarantee Scheme.

New seedlings are being grown in place of those destroyed by monkeys, said Kavitha, who works at the central nursery at Nagaram.