Taking Haritha Haram to every school

Students to plant saplings on their school premises tomorrow

The Nalgonda district administration is gearing up for another ‘record of sorts’ under Telanganaku Haritha Haram.

A collaboration between the Department of Education and State Forest Department would see students from KG to PG participating in the State-wide plantation of one crore saplings on August 25.

Instructions from the DoE, by its Minister Kadiyam Srihari, say August 25 would be observed as ‘Haritha Paatashala - Haritha Telangana Formation Day.

“Not just planting and adopting saplings, students will interact with environmentalists and learn about the importance of greenery through painting and essay writing contests,” said District Collector Gaurav Uppal.

However, the ambitious programme is not without problems.

As one Mandal Education Officer pointed out, “Many schools do not have open spaces for plantation and some are in a dilapidated condition”.

No healthy plants

Others also brought to Mr. Uppal’s notice that the nurseries were dominated by teak wood and no healthy plants were available, which means that they die in a week after plantation. And transportation of hundreds of plants from the nursery to the school site was a challenge too.

According to District Forest Officer Shantha Ram, planting, a semi-skilled exercise if done without training, needs ‘replacement work’ by forest officials. So basic training would be extended to Green Brigades in every school. Nalgonda district has about 9% forest cover, while the State has around 24%, as against the 33% forest cover stipulation by the National Forest Policy, 1988.