The Forest Department will launch a Green Mysuru drive on August 15 as part of Hasiru Karnataka programme to increase the tree cover of the city and the district.
The drive entails planting saplings in vacant spaces of government offices and schools, available space on the roadside, embankment abutting farm land and agricultural fields, courtyards etc.
The first phase will conclude on August 18, said Conservator of Forests S. Venkatesan, DCF K.T. Hanumanthappa and other officials here on Monday.
Mr. Venkatesan said public participation is the key to the success of the programme and the tree species of local requirement would be made available. The authorities sought an indent from various government offices in the city of which 30 offices have responded so far and given the space available, about 1,000 saplings would be planted in these offices. Mr. Hanumanthappa said government schools and other institutions too would be covered.
In the second phase, the drive would cover taluk and gram panchayats where there was more scope for enhancing the tree cover. This will supplement the other ongoing efforts including Koti Vraksha Andolana launched 2 years ago.
A total of 100,000 saplings have been prepared in various nurseries of the Forest Department. The thrust will be on indigenous fruit and flower bearing variety of trees. Mr. Hanumanthappa said the Green Mysuru initiative will also compliment the routine activities of the Forest Department under which 22.21 lakh saplings and 17.18 lakh tree guards have been distributed to the public during 2018-19 so far.
In Mysuru city, 43,000 saplings have already been planted in residential areas adjoining the Outer Ring Road such as Lalitadrinagar and Ramakrishna Nagar while 72,000 saplings of 50 different species have been planted in the Mysuru territorial division.
The programme will be preceded by awareness campaign through jingles over All India Radio, Mysuru, jatha, cultural programmes, painting contest, etc.
As per the national forest policy, at least 33 per cent of the land area should be under green cover and in case of Karnataka, the green cover was 22.56 per cent. Mysuru district had a forest cover of 16.32 per cent of the total land area but the data pertaining to the extent of land with tree cover was yet to be released, according to officials who were confident that the area would be more.