Vijayawada Municipal Corporation to plant 12,000 saplings this rainy season

Vijayawada: The horticulture department of Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) has decided to plant over 12,000 saplings in the city this rainy season to increase the green cover.

It may be recalled that due to indiscriminate axing of trees for road widening works during the Krishna Pushkaralu in 2016, the green cover in the city was reduced.

Hundreds of big and small trees were axed by the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation for widening the roads, particularly the important big roads where traffic is heavy. Consequently, dozens of roads were left without trees.

For instance on Ganapati Rao Road at One Town, not a single tree was alive after the pushkaralu. Similarly, trees were axed in many parts of the city resulting in the reduction of green cover. Now, the VMC has decided to plant at least 12,000 saplings in the city this rainy season beginning next month.

Assistant Director of the Horticulture wing A Pradeep said that the department is gearing up to plant at least 12,000 saplings mostly shade giving plants like Pongamia (Gaanuga), Pagoda, Neem etc. He said the VMC collects saplings from its own nurseries and will get some other variety of plants from the forest department to increase the green cover.

He said last year, the VMC had planted about 10,000 saplings out of which about 8,000 survived. With the support of Andhra Pradesh Urban Greenery Development Corporation (APUGDC), the VMC is arranging tree guards for the protection of saplings.

Earlier, the VMC had arranged thousands of iron tree guards in the city. Unfortunately, most of the tree guards were stolen by unknown people. Vexed with the attitude of these people, the VMC had stopped using iron tree guards for protection of trees for the past five years. Each, iron tree guard cost more than Rs.1000.

To avoid such thefts, the APUGDC and VMC are supplying light weight tree guards made of plastic material. The light weight plastic tree guards are very cheap and there are no buyers for it. Hence, robbing tree guards has become almost zero in the city.

Now, at least 5,000 trees are grown by the denizens voluntarily in the city. People are taking care of the saplings planted by the VMC on the streets.

Now, the VMC has to face big challenge of cutting the cement and tar road for planting the saplings. The civic body has to use heavy machines to cut the road, said assistant director Pradeep. Workers also demand more money for cutting the roads and it will take a lot of time to cut the roads.