The week-long festival of trees ‘Van Mahotsav’ kicked off at Tata Steel Zoological Park. The mahotsav was jointly inaugurated by Satyajit Singh, IFS, conservator of forests, territorial circle, Jahedpur and Karma Zimpa Bhutia, IFS, divisional forest officer, Jahedpur by planting a Sal (Shorea robusta) sapling each in the zoo campus.
Around 48 school children and 2 eco club teachers, Arun Kumar Mahto from KPS Burma Mines and K Jayashree from JUSCO Public School, South Park participated in the event.A total of 15 saplings were planted on Sunday. Ritu Raj Sinha, Member, TSZS, Bipul Chakrabarty, Director (Zoo), Dr Manik Palit, Deputy Director and Sanjay Kumar Mahato, Curator were present during the inauguration.
This year the emphasis is on planting indigenous plant species such as Sal, Mahua, Asan, Arjun, Barh, Neem, Karam etc in the Zoo. Fodder trees like Peltophoum (Copper pod) and Gulmohar shall also be planted. During the weeklong festival the target is to plant 100 trees and shrub saplings in the Zoo.
On the sidelines of the inauguration of Mahotsav, a sale counter for endemic medicinal plants was also inaugurated by Satyajit Singh. Thus visitors shall now get an opportunity to take home medicinal plants and shrubs for their home / kitchen garden. For the time being sale of plants will be done on Saturday and Sundays only.