State govt meet next week to fix Delhi’s annual plantation targets: Minister

The meeting will take place on April 12 at the Delhi secretariat, and will be attended by Delhi’s greening agencies to finalise the number for this year’s plantation drives.

The Delhi government will be holding a high-level meeting next week to determine this year’s annual plantation target for the national capital, Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai said on Wednesday.

Rai said while the central government has set Delhi a target of planting 2.8 million saplings for 2021-22, Delhi set itself a target of 3.3 lakh saplings. (ANI file photo)

The meeting will take place on April 12 at the Delhi secretariat, and will be attended by Delhi’s greening agencies to finalise the number for this year’s plantation drives. Last year, Delhi had set itself a target of planting 3.3 million saplings across the city, and it not only achieved that target but also surpassed it to plant 3.5 million saplings.

“On April 12, a meeting with all departments concerned has been called for the mega plantation drive that will be held this summer. All agencies have been called in to set a goal of planting saplings this year,” said Rai.

The meeting will be attended by over 20 agencies, including the forest department, the Delhi Development Authority, the three corporations, education department, Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development (DSIIDC), Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC), Public Works Department (PWD), Central PWD, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), environment department, Delhi Jal Board (DJB) and Indian Railways, among others.

Each year, each of these agencies are set a target of planting a certain number of saplings within their jurisdiction.

Rai said while the central government has set Delhi a target of planting 2.8 million saplings for 2021-22, Delhi set itself a target of 3.3 lakh saplings. That too was surpassed by around 200,000 saplings.

“As a result of the Delhi government’s efforts, Delhi now ranks first among Indian cities in terms of per capita forest cover. As per the Forest Survey of India’s report, the green cover in Delhi is 23.06% in 2021 ,” said Rai, adding that each department will also be assessing the quality of the soil this year in order to ensure a high survival rate of saplings.

The survival rate of saplings from the drives in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 was between 75% and 80%, Rai had said last year, quoting an audit report by the Forest Research Institute in Dehradun.

The audits of the following years are yet to be carried out.