Haryana Govt to plant 2.5 cr saplings

With an aim to increase green cover in Haryana, a special campaign would be launched for plantation of 2.5 crore saplings on available land in fiscal year 2017-18. 

A unique scheme ‘Har Ghar Hariyali’ has been launched under which plants are being given to people for planting them in homestead lands and farmhouses in Haryana, said a spokesman of the Forest Department. 

He said under the ‘Deendayal Upadhyaya Smriti Van’ scheme, saplings would be planted at entrances to the office campuses and all vacant lands under offices in Haryana. Similarly, all vacant areas in villages would be covered under the ‘Har Gaon Pedon Ki Chaon’ scheme.

The Forest Department has also signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) regarding a project for plantation along the national highways passing through Haryana with a clear undertaking that the Forest Department would not declare the land as protected forests, or reserve forests, without the consent of the NHAI, said he. 

Similar MoU would be signed with each department in the state, said the spokesperson. 

He said all departments had been asked to send the list of places or areas lying vacant in their field offices for tree plantation during the current financial year, to the District Forest Officer or Conservator of Forests of concerned district. 

Three awards would also be given in every district to offices which give maximum cooperation in this regard, the spokesman added. 

At present, the forest cover is around 3.58 per cent out of the total area of 44 lakh hectares of Haryana and the State Government has set a target to increase it to six per cent in next five years and make it 10 percent in the future. 

As per the India State of Forest Report 2015 released by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) recently, Haryana’s forest cover had shrunk in the previous two years. The forest cover which was 1586 sq km (2013) in the small state of Haryana had gone down to 1584 sq km recording a decline of 2 sq km (around 500 acres).