Achieving the unprecedented success under the Punjab Government’s ‘Mission Tandarust Punjab’, a total of 17,86,973 saplings have been distributed to the people during the last two months with the process still continuing.
“The saplings have been distributed amongst the masses under the ‘Ghar Ghar Hariyali’ campaign and ‘i-Hariyali’ app in various camps, programmes and nurseries,” said the State Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot on Sunday.
He said that the aim of providing free saplings is to keep the environment clean and green and preserve ecological balance. “The State Government’s flagship programme ‘i-Hariyali’ App has got massive response from the masses who are receiving the saplings of their choice through online bookings,” he said.
Dharamsot said that 1,48,285 saplings have been planted in Amritsar forest division while 1,75,997 saplings were planted in Bathinda forest division, 65804 in Dasuya forest division, 5226 in Ferozepur forest division, 31381 in Gurdaspur forest division, 72561 in Hoshiarpur forest division, 44013 in Jalandhar forest division, 229913 in ludhiana forest division, 55393 in Mansa, 220818 in Sri Muktsar Sahib forest division, 60437 in SBS Nagar forest division, 50573 in Pathankot forest division, 125000 in Patiala forest division, 14889 in Rupnagar forest division, 258709 in Sangrur forest division, and 180939 saplings have been planted in SAS Nagar forest division.
The Minister said that the youth is playing an important role in carrying forward this movement of clean environment.
He also emphasized that for every single tree felled, minimum five saplings must be planted in order to maintain balance in nature because a sapling takes a lot of time in becoming a full grown tree.
He said that if the people of Punjab take a pledge to plant more and more saplings besides ensuring their proper maintenance then once again the state would be lush with greenery.