Telangana to plant 230 crore saplings in four years

Telangana has set a target of planting 230 crore plants under the “Telangana Ku Haritha Haram (THH)” programme. So far 81.6 crore plants have been planted under the flagship programme.

Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao launched the fourth phase of the programme from Gajwel, his Assembly constituency, on Wednesday. Around 1.25 lakh saplings will be planted on Wednesday in different parts of the constituency. Plans have been drafted to sound sirens from all religious places of the Assembly segment to call the people to participate in this massive tree planting programme.

The forest land, spread over 26,903.70 sqkm of the geographical area of 1,12,101 sqkm of the state, accounts for 24% forest cover of Telangana. The forest cover in the state is marginally better than the national average of 21.34%. The National Forest Policy, 1988, envisages 33% forest cover across states - a 9% shortfall in Telangana.

To ameliorate the adverse impacts of climate change, the Telangana government launched THH in 2015. This programme aims to increase the Green Cover from 24% to 33%in the state.

Rao launched the programme formally at the Chilukur Balaji temple in Ranga Reddy district on July 3, 2015. The state government has set a target of 40 crore plants this year and 42.28 crore saplings are ready across 3,566 nurseries, giving priority to Teak and fruits.

The saplings are being protected by tree guards. The latest technology is being used to monitor the saplings through geo-tagging. The Forest Department is monitoring the plants by posting the details on the department website – www.tgfmis.com.

Similarly, the Rural Development Department is also monitoring online survival percentage of plantations supported under MGNREGS funds. For other departments and agencies, the protection and survival are monitored at the district level by the Collectors.

As many as 30,809 Green Brigade Teams have been constituted in all the districts with about 4,81,951 members.