New Delhi:
Delhi environment minister Gopal Rai on Thursday said the government will launch a 17-day mega greening drive with a target of planting at least 3.1 million saplings across the national capital. The campaign aims at reducing overall pollution levels and increasing the green cover.
The mega-drive titled ‘Plant Saplings, Save Environment’ or ‘Vraksharopan Pakhwada’ will focus on planting shrubs on key stretches that see heavy traffic movement in order to curb dust pollution. Road dust is a major contributor to PM 10, which is a prominent pollutant in Delhi’s air.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal before the 2019 elections had in his guarantee card promised that over the coming five years, his government will plant 2 crore saplings across the city.
“We are committed to reducing pollution levels in Delhi. We will plant over 31 lakh (3.1 million) saplings during this 17-day plantation drive. All departments will be involved in this initiative. Our target is to plant 20 lakh (2 million) saplings of big trees and 11 lakh (1.1 million) saplings of small trees and shrubs,” Rai said in a statement.
Rai will kick start the drive by planting saplings at the ITO nursery near Yamuna Bank on July 10. All 70 MLAs will hold plantation drives in their constituencies.
{{/usCountry}}Rai will kick start the drive by planting saplings at the ITO nursery near Yamuna Bank on July 10. All 70 MLAs will hold plantation drives in their constituencies.
{{/usCountry}}This year’s target is much higher than last year’s 2.4 million saplings but still lower than 3.2 million in 2018, which has been the highest so far. Mega plantation drives have been Kejriwal governments’ strategy to mitigate air pollution in Delhi.
According to officials in the forest department, the nodal agency for plantation in the city, more than 90% of the saplings to be planted will be native species such as peepal, bargad, gular, jamun, gulmohar, sheesham, arjun and pilkhan, among others. The major plantation will be carried out in South (Asola), West (Alipur) and North divisions where large patches are available.
“The central government gave the target of planting 15 (1.5 million) lakh saplings in Delhi this year but we will plant double the target this year. While various Delhi government departments will plant 18 lakh (1.8 million) saplings, another 9, 40,000 will be planted by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA),” said Rai.
Besides, the three municipal corporations and the New Delhi Municipal Council will together plant 200,000 saplings. Other agencies such as Delhi Metro and Northern Railways, among others too will plant a total of 200,000 saplings.
The government has roped in the Forest Research Institute (FRI), Dehradun to perform a third-party audit of last year’s plantation drive. In 2019-20, the Delhi government planted a total of 29, 366, 3.6 million saplings against the target of 24, 18,300 lakh saplings. “We have decided to get a third-party audit done to assess the survival rate of the plantations this year as well,” said Rai.
The minister said the aim of the mega plantation drive is to increase Delhi’s green cover to 350 sqkm by 2021 from the current 325 sqkm. “In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in the green cover of Delhi due to the mega plantation initiatives. In 2017 the green cover was 299 sqkm, which increased to 325 sqkm in 2019 and it is estimated that by 2021 the green cover will increase to around 350 sqkm, which will help in a substantial reduction of pollution levels,” said Rai.