Visakhapatnam: A formal agreement has been signed with a private organisation for the geotagging of plants under the Green Visakha Plantation Programme (GVPP). Only trees that have been tagged and mapped will be taken into consideration during verification of the outcomes of the project. The geotagging of the plants is necessary in order for the authorities to be able to monitor the implementation of the Plantation Programme, and for the project to be compliant with the guidelines of the Parliamentary Standing Committee (Science, Environment and Forests) under whose recommendation it has been undertaken.
In all, 22 public sector organisations and industrial units are participating in the GVPP which has been taken up by the Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority (VUDA) in coordination with the Andhra Pradesh Pollution Control Board (APPCB), the Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation (GVMC) and the district administration. The authorities have been on the lookout for a private organisation to carry out the geotagging of trees.
R. Lakhminarayana, the APPCB’s executive engineer for Vizag, says the geotagging project has been awarded to Blu-efrog Mobile Technologies Private Limited. He says that about 20 lakh plants will be tagged within next two months. “For the geotagging of a single plant, it will cost us Rs 2.75. For a block plantation, it will cost us Rs 26. Between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000 is being spent on the maintenance of each plant, based on its species, for the period from 2016 to 2018. Maintenance includes watering, replacement and geotagging.”
Prabhu from Bluefrog says that the geotagging of plants began 10 days ago after a financial agreement was signed. “We will provide an Android-based mobile application to industries, for the geotagging of plants. The ap-plication will help us rec-ord the location of plants. Industries will have to monitor the plants at regular intervals and update the data on the application.” He says that around 10.8 lakh plants have been geotagged since 2012, and the remaining will be tagged in the upcoming phase.
