UP to plant record 25 crore trees today amid Covid safety protocol

LUCKNOW: The state would be made greener by 25 crore trees on Sunday in a massive plantation drive.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath would plant a sapling in Kukrail reserve forest on Sunday morning to inaugurate the plantation drive.
The CM has instructed the government departments involved to ensure that social distancing is followed during the plantation, which would be done as per Covid-19 protocol.
Slogans like “do gaz ki doori, mask zaroori” and “corona harega, desh jeetega” would be exhibited at the plantation sites.
The state is eyeing another record this time by planting more than 150 species of trees at two to three sites in Lucknow division. More than 26 lakh trees will be planted in Lucknow itself.
Sources in the forest department said, “A command centre has been set up at the forest department headquarters to compile the data on plantation every hour or two.”
Plantation would be done at more than 8.7 lakh sites in the state. Each site has been geo-tagged.
At the district level, each and every officer and staff member would be involved like they are during elections.
District-level committees headed by DMs will oversee the plantation drive.
One of the objectives of the drive is to help farmers generate extra income. For this, beneficiaries of PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Yojna have been provided with five saplings each as part of the drive.
The drive also aims at curbing malnourishment among women and children. To achieve the objective, one sahjan tree will be planted in every rural household.
Beneficiaries of various schemes of the Centre like PMAY, Saubhagya, Ujjwala and Swachh Bharat have also been given one sapling of sahjan each for plantation in their house.
More than 2.2 crore trees would be planted on the river banks, including those of rivers Ganga, Yamuna, Gomti, Rapti, Ghaghra, Saryu, Sharda, Tamsa,Varuna and Betwa.
The maximum number of trees—67 lakh—would be planted on the banks of the Ganga in all 27 districts the river flows by.
In all, more than 300 species of tress, ranging from timber-yielding, fruit-bearing, ornamental, herbs and medicinal plants, those having significant environmental value, fodder-generating and varieties endemic to the state and others would be planted.
The forest department would plant 10 crore trees and the remaining 26 government departments collectively would plant 15 crore trees. The latter includes the saplings given to beneficiaries. All plantation would be done tomorrow.
The plantation drive would also create employment for local people as plantation, care, upkeep, security and watering of plants would require extra hands.