Plantation target for fiscal 2022-23 set at 3.5 million

The Delhi govt had set a target of planting 3.3 million saplings last year but it planted nearly 3.5 million saplings.

elhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Tuesday announced that the Delhi government has set a target of planting 3.54 million saplings across the Capital in the financial year 2022-23, adding that a “Mega Tree Plantation Drive” will kick off the programme soon.

A boy planting a sapling. (Representative Image) (Hindustan Times)

The government had set a target of planting around 3.3 million saplings last year but it managed to plant close to 3.5 million saplings, Rai said on Tuesday.

“Under this campaign, around 100,000 saplings will be planted by the different greening agencies and around 700,000 saplings will be distributed free of cost through government nurseries. Various tasks, such as soil preparation, excavating trenches, preparing saplings, soil fertilisation, and so on, will be done in May and June and the process of planting the saplings will begin from the month of July,” said Rai on Tuesday.

The minister had held a high-level joint meeting on Tuesday with all greening agencies, which included the forest department, the three corporations, DDA, Railways, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, CPWD, DSIIDC and BSES, among others.

Rai said Delhi’s consistent plantation efforts was evident in the increasing green cover, which currently stands at 23.06% of the total geographical area.

“As a result of all the measures taken by the Delhi government, a significant increase in the green cover has been seen inside Delhi. In 2013, the green area in Delhi was around 20%, but thanks to our efforts, it has increased to 23.06% in 2021. In addition, Delhi has surpassed all other cities in the country in terms of per capita forest cover,” Rai added.

To involve citizens in the Mega Plantation drive, Rai also launched a green helpline number – 1800118600 -- which will allow NGOs, RWAs and individuals to seek more information about free saplings and the sites of the plantation drive.

Rai also said directions had been issued to all greening agencies to conduct a third-party audit to check the survival rate of saplings planted last year and ensure accountability.

“If a department has not yet had a third-party audit completed, orders have been issued to have it audited by the Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Combating Climate Change (MGICCC). In future also, this institute will perform further plantation-related third-party audits,” he said.