Thousands of fruit trees were planted in the Saklana range of Tehri district on Sunday. Along with the locals and environmentalists, the ambassador of Sweden to India, Klas Molin also attended the plantation event organised with the involvement of Earth Day Network and One Tree Planted.
Speaking on the occasion, the Swedish ambassador said that Sweden and India are close partners when it comes to environmental issues. Recalling that about 10 per cent of Sweden’s GDP comes from ‘green gold’, he said that his nation is also particular about ensuring that trees are nurtured and more planted.
Expressing happiness at participating in the tree plantation in Saklana range, Molin said that he would mention this experience too when he goes to meet the king of Sweden in the near future.Meanwhile, tree saplings were planted in the villages of Manjgaon, Kalavan, Uniyalgaon, Haveli, Jaadgaon, Navagaon, Semvalgaon, Maroda, Lamkandai and Hatwalgaon. The saplings included those of apricot, walnut, plum, pear, papaya and lemon. The inaugural ceremony for tree planting was held at Rajkiya Ucchatar Madhyamik Vidyalaya, Manjgaon. From there, the villagers went on to plant these saplings in their farmland and homesteads. The saplings will be nurtured and monitored by social enterprise Sustainable Green Initiative.
“We planted 15,000 trees in this area last year on Vasant Panchami. Encouraged by the excellent survival rate and with the way the people here are taking care of the saplings, here we are, again, working on greening the world, one fruit tree at a time,” said Karuna Singh, the regional director for South Asia and Country Director, Earth Day Network.
Sustainable Green Initiative director Raj Mohan said, “It may sound cliched, but indeed, where there is a will, there is a way. In the land of the ‘tree man’ Vishweshwar Dutt Saklani, the people treat tree saplings like their own children.”
SGI will help the villagers plant and nurture these fruit trees to not only increase the green cover but also provide nutrition and secondary income by selling the fruits. According to SGI’s estimates, each fruit tree gives a quintal or more of fruits from the fourth year onwards.
Even at a marginal market price of Rs 10 per kilogramme, each tree will provide nutritional value or an additional income of Rs 1,000 to the farmer. While helping farmers nurture these saplings into young trees, SGI will stress on the importance of organic farming and help the villagers in taking care of them by not resorting to chemical fertilisers or pesticides.