KHAMMAM: The survival rate of saplings planted during the Haritha Haram programme implemented in 20 mandals of Khammam district is only 50 per cent. So far, Haritha Haram has been implemented in six phases, with the seventh phase going on currently.
District administration had planted 14.34 crore saplings in the district during the last sixth phases. It has planned to plant 70 lakh saplings in the seventh phase.
Badvathanda village in Raghunathapalem mandal is a classic example of estimating the plant survival rate. Officials and people planted 12,000 saplings in the village during the sixth phase of Haritha Haram. But only about 6,000 survived.
Nearly 18,000 saplings had been planted in the sixth phase in Konigerla, a mandal headquarters gram panchayat. The survival rate here too had been only 50 percent, as per a random sample survey.
Transport minister P. Ajay Kumar and collector R.V. Karnan had got angry with officials that no plants could be seen on roadsides in Pandillapalli village of Chintakani mandal when the duo visited the village last week as part of Palle Pragathi. There are 26 nurseries in Chintakani mandal. But the survival rate of their saplings after planting is only 45 per cent.
The state government has asked all gram panchayats to maintain at least one nursery in each village from funds allotted to it. But officials find this to be a difficult task, as they lack technical know-how. This is what is leading to just about 50 percent plant survival rate in these nurseries.
