Delhi Development Authority (DDA) will plant four lakh indigenous trees this year across various biodiversity parks and other green belts in the national Capital.
A senior DDA official said that Neem, amaltas, gulmohar and other species which are native to this region will be planted across Delhi as part of an afforestation drive of DDA. “This year the DDA is going to plant four lakh local or indigenous tree species like, neem, peepal, bargad, gulmohar, amaltas, pilkhan, kachnar, jamun, sheesham, arjun, belpatra, which are native to this region, and found in and around Delhi,” he said.
The plantation drive was launched recently, with planting of trees at a park near Commonwealth Games Village and a park at Vasant Kunj, in association with local Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs).
The civic agency said that the planting will be taken up in DDA’s parks, biodiversity parks, green belts, roadsides, Yamuna flood plains and other places by involving local resident welfare associations (RWAs), other organisations and eco-clubs of various schools,”
The official further said that school children will also be involve in the plantation drive to create awareness and sensitise students about the importance of trees and their role in environment conservation.
“Each eco-club will be supplied a maximum of 500 seedlings for planting per year, through students of class 6 and above. Students will maintain planted trees or plants for next 4-5 years till they pass out of school,” the DDA said.
There is a provision, wherein students can adopt any tree or plant and can place their name plaque on the adopted plant, it said.
“Initially, the DDA will prepare the site for planting by doing all operations, and then planting will be carried out by eco-clubs.
Each eco-club will be given Rs 25,000 per year for procurement of gardening tools, compost etc., cost of transportation and maintenance of plants,” the DDA said.
The civic body said that each eco-club will sign a memorandum of understanding with DDA for this purpose. The schools which do not have eco-clubs can also get associated with this scheme,” it added.
Similarly, DDA also proposes to involve all registered RWAs and other interested persons and organizations in its plantation drive in parks adjoining the RWAs or such organisations.
“In the first year, it is proposed to involve 200 eco-clubs of various schools of Delhi in this scheme.
Each eco-club will maintain a register regarding the plantation carried out, and record survival percentage annually,” the official said.
The DDA in this regard, has addressed all schools having eco-clubs to contact DDA’s nodal officer to get associated with the plantation drive by selecting the site in vicinity of their schools, he said.