the ongoing Covid pandemic with people increasingly realising the importance of having a strong immune system, the Uttar Pradesh government is set to launch a plantation campaign in July.
The campaign will lay special emphasis on medicinal and nutritious plants to help the present as well as future generations build a protective cover against diseases. “The campaign will take care of both the environment as well as people’s health,” a government spokesman said.
As per the Forest department, one-and-a-half dozen species of medicinal and aromatic plants such as sahjan, amaltas, arjun, neem, kadamba, ashok and hibiscus will be planted and their total number will be close to 418 lakh.
Besides, the government has set a target of planting about three dozen species of medicinal and nutritional plants, including bael, aonla (gooseberry), kaitha, jamun (java plum), bahera and harr among others. The total number of these plants, which are rich in medicinal properties, will be 2,82,05,994.
Nutritional plants will also include custard apple, jackfruit, lemon, lasoda, fig, sycamore, mahua, mango, mulberry, jungle jalebi, guava, pomegranate, tamarind, plum, kinnow and papaya. The government has set a target of planting 30 crore saplings this season.
“The government has made all preparations to make the plantation campaign a success. The Forest department is its nodal agency while 26 other departments are also cooperating in this campaign. The departments have been given the target to plant a total of 19.20 crore saplings. The Forest department will plant the remaining 10.80 crore saplings,” the official said.
As many as 42.17 crore saplings have been prepared in 1,813 nurseries of the Forest department according to the agro-climatic conditions of all the districts in order to ensure timely availability of plants as per people’s demand.
A record plantation has been done every year since Yogi Adityanath took over as chief minister. A total of 60,24,46,551 saplings of different species have been planted so far during this government. Both forest cover and tree cover have increased in UP in the last four years due to record plantation.
According to the State Forest Report 2019 by the Forest Survey of India, there has been an increase of 127 kms in the forest cover in UP as compared to 2017. According to the report, the tree cover of UP is 3.05 per cent as compared to the national average of 2.89 per cent.