To augment the green cover of the City Beautiful, the UT Administration would plant 2,08,477 saplings during the current fiscal year 2014-15.The Greening Chandigarh Action Plan 2014-15 was released on Thursday.
Santosh Kumar, Director, UT Environment Department informed that against the target of 205000 saplings in fiscal 2013-14, 2,22,103 saplings were planted. During this fiscal, a target of 2,08,477 saplings has been fixed.
Under the Greening Action Plan 2014-15, extensive tree plantation drives throughout the year would be carried out by the UT Forest Department in collaboration with the Municipal Corporation, UT Engineering Department, UT Horticulture Department schools, colleges and various NGOs.
Kumar He said, “The UT Forest Department will carry out plantation of 55,000 number of saplings, whereas Horticulture Wing of Municipal Corporation will plant 58,000 saplings and Horticulture Wing of Engineering Department will plant 30,477 saplings. Besides this, around 65,000 saplings will also be planted by Schools, Colleges, Resident Welfare Associations, Market Association, NGO’s, Rotary Clubs, lion’s Club and other Govt. Organisations etc.”
“The annual Greening Chandigarh Action Plan is a guiding tool for all the greening agencies of UT Administration to strategize effectively to fulfill their commitment of making City Beautiful more clean and green,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Department of Forests and Environment in collaboration with Youth Innovative Society celebrated ‘World Environment Day – 2014’ at Sukhna lake on Thursday.
The Department organised an ‘Environment Awareness Cycle Rally’ which was flagged off by KK Sharma, Adviser to UT Administrator. Around 200 participants of NSS units of UT Chandigarh, Schools, Chandigarh Amateur Cycling Association, participated in this event. The aim of the cycle rally was to spread the message of environment conservation among various stakeholders of the society and to promote cycling in the city.
On this occasion, the ‘Best Eco-Club Award of UT Chandigarh’ was also announced by Department of Environment and the prizes for their commendable work in the field of environment conservation were distributed by KK Sharma.