1.75 Billion Saplings To Be Planted And Protected In The Next 5 Yrs
Yogi said the ultimate target is to increase the UP forest and green cover from the present 9% to 15% by 2026–27.
By VIRENDRA SINGH RAWAT
LUCKNOW. July 12 (The CONNECT) -Looking to increase green cover to 15 percent by 2027 in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government 2.0 will plan 350 million saplings in the current financial year 2023-24.
According to the state government, more than 1.31 billion saplings have been planted in six years since 2017.
Yesterday, chief minister Yogi Adityanath presided over a meeting to finalise the overarching roadmap for ‘Van Mahotsav-2023’ and to transform the campaign into a mass movement to increase the state green cover.
Starting from a modest plantation in UP of about 57.2 million saplings in 2017-18, the state government doubled the quantum to more than 110 million in 2018-19; followed by nearly 220 million (2019-20), 250 million (2020-21), 300 million (2021-22) and 350 million (2022-23) in subsequent years.
“The general public exhibited great enthusiasm during the awareness week observed from July 1 to 7. This enthusiasm will become the basis for making this year’s ‘Van Mahotsav’ a success,” the CM observed.
He added the target of ‘Green Uttar Pradesh’ will be fulfilled only with the maximum participation of the common people and students.
Now, the state is gearing up for the mass plantation drive on July 22. The rainy season is considered ideal for such plantation.
Besides, programmes such as ‘Prabhat Pheri’, slogan writing, essay writing, speech competitions and wall writing would be held in schools to ensure the participation of children in the mega campaign.
Meanwhile, the state forest department has fixed the department-wise target of the targeted plantation even as division-wise targets have also been fixed.
Efforts would be made to plant at least 1,000 saplings in every village while almost 50 million saplings would be planted on the forthcoming Independence Day on August 15.
The CM stressed on the availability of saplings for the success of the plantation drive, which will be authenticated with geo-tagging. The state forest and climate change department has the official mandate in this regard.
Yogi said the ultimate target is to increase the UP forest and green cover from 9 percent at present to 15 percent by 2026–27.
To achieve this ambitious target, 1.75 billion saplings will need to be planted and protected in the next five years with public participation, he underlined.
