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Trees older than 100 years to get ‘heritage’ tag; UP orders mass plantation drive on July 1
Noida: The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered the forest department to gear up for a massive plantation drive on July 1, and recognise all trees which are 100
Noida: The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered the forest department to gear up for a massive plantation drive on July 1, and recognise all trees which are 100 years or older across the state to protect them as ‘heritage trees’.
According to a government order, a total of 25 crore trees are to be planted across the state on July 1, of which the Noida district will see 8.5 lakh trees planted. Hoping that the national lockdown would not be extended further beyond April 17, forest officials said they have already started reviewing their preparations for the mass plantation and will soon start checking their records to ascertain the number of trees which are a-century-old in the district.
“The forest department nurseries had been working during lockdown as well in order to ensure that the saplings stocked in our nurseries are maintained for the massive drive, which had been planned last year. This year’s target is 8.5 lakh trees for the district while we have maintained a stock of over 12 lakh healthy saplings across five departmental nurseries in the district,” said PK Srivastava, divisional forest officer, Gautam Budh Nagar.
Speaking on heritage trees, officials said the department will have to go by older records to assess the locations of these trees.
“We will visit the records soon to analyse how many trees in the city are older than 100 years. This may take some time. The idea is to protect them as heritage trees, which means they will be protected either by fencing or other means, and in no case would their axing be allowed,” said Srivastava.
According to the government order dated May 8, the concerned departments involved in the mass-plantation drive shall also employ migrant labourers for the plantation work.
“We will have to work out a plan to employ migrant labourers with plantation workers like digging pits for the plantation and other works during the massive drive. The duration of employment and wages will have to be worked upon,” said Srivastava.
