KASEZ development commissioner Amiya Chandra inspects plantation in Guru Nanak Sacred Forest in KASEZ, Gandhidham. (Express Photo)
With an aim to increase green cover and reduce pollution, the Kandla Special Economic Zone (KASEZ) has planted 1.5 lakh trees and decided to set up an effluent treatment plant inside the zone.
Over the past year, KASEZ has planted one lakh saplings in a five-acre plot inside the zone with the help of non-governmental organisations such as EcoSikh and the International Association for Human Values, as well as contributions from export-oriented units functioning out of KASEZ as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR). The plantation, based on the Japanese Miyawaki method of high-density forests, has been named Guru Nanak Sacred forest. Another 50,000 fruit trees have been planted across the 1,000-acre expanse of the zone. A private contractor is providing samplings and undertaking the planting and maintenance operations at the rate of Rs 110 per tree for a two-year period.. “Later on, we shall ask the units to adopt trees in their vicinity and take care of their maintenance,” Amiya Chandra, development commissioner of KASEZ, said.
With an aim to prevent pollution of land and water, KASEZ is also planning to set up an effluent treatment plant (ETP) on public-private-partnership (PPP) mode.
Hitesh Thummar of Quantum Lift Agro Services, a private firm which has been awarded the contract of developing the forest and planting trees inside the zone, said, “…While we planted saplings of 70 local species of trees and shrubs, many of them didn’t survive. Therefore, we collected seeds of some species from saline areas of Kutch, Surendranagar, etc. and sowed them in our plantation area and the experiment has remained successful.”