Rs 2cr spent on saplings, but no trace of trees

Coimbatore: Under the massive tree plantation programme to increase green cover, the District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) had allotted Rs 2 crore in 2016 to plant 10,300 saplings on the bunds of ponds in Avinashi block of Tirupur district.
Three years later, not even a single pond other than the PWD pond at Papankulam bear the evidence of such a programme. Instead, most of the ponds are filled with thorny shrubs.
A Venkatachalapathy, a resident of Punjaithamaraikulam, said, “A couple of years ago, panchayat officials along with workers had planted a few tens of saplings along the bunds of Sokkankadu pond in our village. But the work was stopped abruptly within a few days after the photographs of workers along with the planted saplings were taken.”
Even the planted samplings had withered due to lack of maintenance and the pond is now filled with bushes without a trace of massive tree plantation programme, he said.
As per an RTI reply, 400 saplings were planted at the cost of Rs 8 lakh at this pond.
Former vice-president of the village panchayat M Venkatachalapathy said not just at Sokkanadu pond, the plantation was not carried out in more than 95% of the ponds in the block.
He said no one expect a few were interested in planting the saplings to increase the green cover. They were interested in making commission out of the project, he added.
It has become common in the blocks that officials would just plant a few saplings and click pictures for documentation purposes and forget about the project, completely, he said. Not even 1% of the allotted money was utilized for its original purpose, he said.
Activist P Shanmugasundaram filed an RTI query to know about the number of saplings planted in ponds in the block under the programme. “It is only due to lack of green cover there has been so many environmental issues mainly climate change and lack of rainfall in the district. Increasing the green cover is the need of the hour.”
Pointing out the thorny bushes had filled the ponds, he said that bushes should be cleared before planting the saplings. Bushes were not cleared even at a single pond for the programme, he added. The bushes absorb the groundwater and its level goes down, he added.
Meanwhile, a project in charge said that they have certain limitations as well. “The fund allotted to plant saplings at a particular pond includes both the cost of saplings and labour cost. We could use the workforce only for 100 days and not a day after that was allowed. Without workforce, how could we water or protect the saplings and that is the main reason for plants withering.”
The plants at the pond in Papankulam have not withered because workers there took special interest and pooled in their own money to purchase manure for the plants, the project in charge said. The plants were watered regularly with the help of sanitary workers.
A panchayat official from Nambiyanpalayam where 400 saplings were planted at the cost Rs 8.30 lakh said that their saplings planted in the ponds were submerged during last year monsoon when the block had received highest rainfall, while those planted on the bunds were eaten by cattle.
When contacted, project director of DRDA Ramesh Kumar said he would investigate the issue and act against officials in case of misappropriation of funds were found out.