Telangana to form panels to protect green cover

Adilabad: The state government is forming Haritha Rakshana Committees with government employees, the general public and members of NGOs and SHGs in villages and towns to protect existing trees and saplings to be planted as part of Haritha Haram. As many as 40,000 saplings will be planted in each village in the state as part of Haritha Haram scheduled to be held in the second week of July.

The state government is making serious efforts to increase the green cover as top officials and ministers feel that increasing forest cover is the only solution to improve rainfall in the state following scientific repo-rts which proved that places with good forest cover receive good rains.

It is said that the Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, is very particular about increasing green cover to 33 per cent from the existing 24 in the state. The government is gathering village-wise details of total houses in villages and the variety of plants the house owners wish to plant and also particulars about the backyard or the front yard of the house.

Sarpanc-hes will be given powers to monitor the saplings to be planted in the villages. Minister for Forest and Environment Jogu Ramanna said that as many as 40 lakh saplings will be planted in each Assembly constituency as part of Haritha Haram and a total of 230 crore saplings will be planted in three years in the state.

The minister said that 100 crore saplings will be planted in forest areas, 120 crore in non-forest areas and 10 crore saplings in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation. He added they will give saplings of fruits, flowers and wood based trees according to the wishes of the house owners. The minister said they have received 99 per cent indent for saplings of various varieties from all the districts in the state.