nAs part of an initiative to provide food to wild animals inside jungles, around 53,000 kg fruit bearing plant seeds were scattered in the forest across state during ‘Beej Buai Mahaparv’ (seed sowing festival).
Around 6,500 seed balls were also used during the sowing festival, officials said here on Saturday.
According to official information about 2 lakh people participated in this mega drive.
Officials further informed that Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel had directed the department to scatter fruit bearing plant seeds in the jungles so that wild animals may get food inside their natural habitat and need not come out of jungle in search of food.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forest (PCCF) Rakesh Chaturvedi said that apart from food for wild animals this drive is also focused on increasing the availability of fruit trees in jungles.
“The fruits that will be produced as a result of this mega drive will also add extra pennies to the kitty of forest management committee and increase availability of fruits in rural region,” PCCF Chaturvedi said.
During the drive seeds were scattered in open forest land with good surface soil, old planation regions, proposed plantation spots, CPT bunds, structures made for soil/water conservation like contour trench, ponds, stop dams, river/culvert beds and other small water sources, officials said.
Forest management committees across the state have been asked to take care of the plants that would germinate from the seeds. Seeds of mango, jackfruit, berries, bottle gourd, ladies fingers and such other trees were scattered.
The seeds sowing festival was held across all the 34 forest divisions of the state wherein members of 7,887 forest management committees took part.