Several depts roped in for Vanmahotsav drive

Chandigarh: In a bid to promote tree plantation outside the forest area this Vanmahotsav, the forest department has roped in different government departments and agencies to plant saplings on their land.
“The green cover of City Beautiful has increased significantly over time with continued efforts of all greening agencies and support of the people of Chandigarh.One focus area is to increase trees outside forest area. This year, a special drive has been taken up by the department to reach out to other government departments of Chandigarh, organisations, institutions, schools/ colleges etc for plantation of trees within their premises,” said a UT forest department official.
Several meetings were held with departments concerned to discuss the plantation plan between April and June this year. Joint site inspections by nodal officers of stakeholder departments and the forest department were conducted to ascertain the suitability of the site and species for plantation during the monsoon.
The plantation drive will be launched by the UT administrator under the campaign “Ek Ped Maa ke Naam.” They will start the drive by planting a sapling at Punjab Raj Bhawan on July 5. tnn