The UT Forest Department has joined hands with city schools, colleges, Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) and NGOs to maintain the greenery in the city beautiful.
Aimed to preserve green cover of the city, the UT Forest Department on Friday announced to launch intensive plantation drive here to commemorate ‘Van Mahotsav-2012’ in a big way.To sensitize and to spread awareness among the city residents, the UT Forest Department will organise various days like Eco-Club day, NGO day, Resident Welfare Association day, Herbal day in next one week to plant saplings of tree species and herbal plants during the ensuing monsoon season. UT Conservator of Forests Santosh Kumar said, “On Eco-Club day on July 23, all the eco-clubs formed in the schools of Chandigarh will carry out plantation drive in their respective areas.”
He said, “On July 25, Herbal Day will be organized and herbal plantation will be carried out by school and colleges in their premises.”NGO day will be celebrated on July 26 and NGOs registered under UT Forest Department will organise plantation drives across the city. Resident Welfare Association Day will be organized on July 28. On this day, all the Resident Welfare Associations (RWAs) will plant saplings in their jurisdiction.
The UT Forest Department has also requested residents of Chandigarh to participate in Van Mahotsav-2013 and plant more and more trees so as to make Chandigarh a clean and green city. In this series, on the occasion of ‘Van Mahotsav-2012’ on Friday, a ‘Paudh Mela’ was inaugurated by KK Sharma, Advisor to the UT Administrator at lake Sports Complex.The Paudh Mela would continue from July 19 to 21 (timings: 7 am to 11 am, 4 pm to 7 pm) in front of lake Sports Complex.
In ‘Paudh Mela’, three stalls of Forest Department, Municipal Corporation and Horticulture wing of Engineering Department will be stationed where saplings would be distributed free of cost or at subsidized rate depending on species.On the occasion, UT Adviser also distributed few saplings to the people present there. After inauguration of ‘Paudh Mela’, Sharma also went to Sukhna Choe Reserved Forest area near Daria Forest Nursery, where he launched ‘Plantation Drive’2013 at the site and planted a ‘Jamun’ sapling.
More than 200 school students and NSS cadets and representatives from NGOs and RWAs attended the function and planted saplings which were mostly of fruit bearing species like Aam, Jamun, Gular etc.According to the State of Environment Report Chandigarh 2012, the forest cover of the city is stated to be 34 sq km in the year 2011-12.