With the district administration giving its all in making Haritha Haram a success, it’s no wonder Siddipet stands first among all the districts in meeting the target.
As part of the plantation drive, the officials have planted about 1,000 saplings at the entry and exit points of villages up to two km. A total of four lakh saplings would be planted this year. For this, the district administration has formed Harita Rakshana Committees and plantation committees consisting of panchayat sarpanches, panchayat secretaries, ward members, village-level functionaries, NGOs, SHG members, farmers’ groups and youth organisations.
A Grama Haritha Sainikudu (village green soldier) has also been appointed for every 1,000 saplings who is entrusted with protecting and nurturing them.
Spread across the district, about 104 nurseries have been growing different species of plants, that includes both fruit and flower-bearing plants, those that give shade and ornamental ones. The focus is particularly on those plants whose survival rate is high.
To supervise the plantation drive, district-level officers have been appointed as mandal special officers, while mandal officers have been appointed as special officers at the mandal level. Village-wise and ward-wise action plan has been prepared and saplings that suit the local needs and soil conditions are being distributed to be planted. Seedlings, bags, manure, nets, tree guards, stakes, bicycles and other material have been procured using the funds from the Forest Department and Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). To oversee the plantation location-wise, Green Brigades have been formed.
Given the support that the plantation drive has received from all sections, the results have exceeded the expectation of the officials.
So far, over 50,000 saplings have been planted at government institutes in the district. The survival rate in 2017-18 is 95% compared to the previous two years which stood at 75% in 2016-17 and 33% in 2015-16. Also, the number of saplings planted has increased to 1.57 crore in 2017-18 while it was 78 lakh in 2016-17 and 42 lakh in 2015-16.
“This was made possible with the formation of Haritha Rakshana Committees, Grama Harita Sainukudu, Green Brigades and Harita Supervisors. The involvement of all sections of the society has made the plantation drive a great success,” said an official talking to The Hindu.