Putting green fingers at work to keep areas cool

Anil Kakkar

Sirsa, June 11

The Forest Department will plant over 2.93 lakh saplings and distribute over 5.46 lakh saplings during the monsoon season. The process of supplying free saplings will begin after June 15.

Efforts are being made by the department to increase the forest area in the district. Preparations for tree planting begin after World Environment Day and monsoon arrives by early July in the state.

This year, the department has set a target of planting over 8.39 lakh saplings in the district. Meanwhile, two lakh saplings will be kept in stock. The department’s main focus will be on the areas where trees have been cut down. Several locations where trees were cut down have been identified for planting saplings.

Under the Jal Shakti campaign, over 2.85 lakh saplings will be given to the panchayats for plantation drives.

Furthermore, 97,000 saplings will be distributed to government and private schools. While, 1.64 lakh saplings will be given to public. A total of 87 varieties of saplings will be planted in the district. These include mainly shisham, peepal, neem, mulberry and arjuna.

This year, the maximum temperature in the district exceeded 50 degrees Celsius. Due to extreme heat, people faced a lot of problems and power consumption also increased by three times. Consequently, along with planting saplings, proper care of them is also being prepared to mitigate the impact of such severe heat in the coming years.

The department had banned putting up advertisements on trees. However, many private organisations can be seen flouting the norms. This is causing a significant damage to trees.

Sirsa District Forest Officer Suresh Kumar said a decision has been taken to plant more trees than the set target. Campaigns will be conducted involving schools, social organisations and public to achieve this goal and increase forest areas. He mentioned that currently, there are 5,780.44 hectares of forest land in the district, with over 12.24 lakh trees. Efforts are being made continuously to increase the number of trees, with 33.18 lakh trees in the district.