To encourage people to plant more trees in the State, Haryana Government has set a target to distribute more than one crore saplings to the public in one month during the celebrations of Van Mohotsav.
The State Government would begin the celebrations of 67th Van Mohotsav at a State level function to be organised at Budhpur village of Rewari district on July 15. Chief Minister Manohar lal Khattar along with Cabinet Ministers would attend the programme.
Haryana Forest Minister, Rao Narbir Singh on Wednesday said that people would be exhorted to plant more and more trees. During the Van Mohotsav, people would be urged to take oath to plant atleast two saplings for environment protection.
The drive is also aimed at increasing the green cover in the State, said the Minister.
Rao Narbir also said that the public would be urged to plant sapling on different occasions like birthdays, marriages, anniversaries and festivals to make them more memorable.
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 has shrunk in the past 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).
The rotational felling of trees and diversion of land for non-forestry purposes has led to decline in green cover of Haryana, as per the FSI report.