Meenangadi set to become carbon neutral

Thiruvananthapuram: Thanal, a Thiruvananthapuram-based non-governmental organisation, has released the assessment and recommendations of ‘Carbon Neutral Meenangadi’ project in Wayanad district. 

The plan is to make Meenangadi the first carbon neutral panchayat in the state. 

  The project aims at reducing emission of carbon dioxide and other green house gases and thereby making the panchayat into a carbon neutral community.  Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac, who has been associated with the project for the last two years, released the document on recommendations. 

 Speaking at the function, held at the panchayat the other day, Dr Isaac  said that the project would be extended to the entire Wayanad district.

As part of the project, which took off in 2016, the panchayat authorities have planted around 80,000 trees at Meenangadi. Health standing committee chairman Suresh Kumar said that the project has helped increase the living standards of people in the panchayat. 

The state government has sanctioned Rs 10 crore for the project.

The panchayat has also launched a tree bank project which would enable land owners to pledge the trees they grow in their land with the local cooperative bank and avail a loan.