The Tourism department launched its Smriti Van scheme on the sixth anniversary of the 2013 Kedarnath disaster. The scheme was started on Sunday in seven districts of the Garhwal region.
In the Rudraprayag district, the Garhwal commissioner BVRC Purushottam and district magistrate Mangesh Ghildiyal planted a sapling. For this scheme land has been identified in seven districts for plantation of trees. In the first phase of the scheme, all officers of the district and members of the local community contributed fund for the tree plantation. In the next phase, tourists, locals and pilgrims will have to deposit Rs 2,000 in the Smriti Van counter to plant a sapling in memory of their ancestors.
The amount charged from pilgrims for the saplings will be given to self help groups. These self help groups will handle tasks ranging from developing to maintaining the Smriti Vans. The self help groups will also have to click weekly photographs of the planted saplings and upload these on the Smriti Van mobile phone application.
The land selected for Smriti Van includes one hectare land at Batula near Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway in Chamoli district, two hectare land at Lalpani along Rishikesh-Haridwar bypass in Dehradun district, two hectare land at Daksh Deep Ganga Vatika in Haridwar district, 1.5 hectare at Dwari horticulture farm near Bhatwari Chowk in Uttarkashi district and at Ratuda along the route from Rudraprayag to Badrinath in Rudraprayag district.