President plants a peepal tree at Rashtrapathi Nilayam

Bollarum: President Ram Nath Kovind today planted a “Ficus Religiosa” plant at Rashtrapathi Nilayam, Bollaram, as part of Haritha Haram in the State. The Ficus Religiosa plant is an Indigenous large tree, found throughout India commonly called Peepal and it flowers during February-March. The Fruits are favorites of many birds like parakeets and mynas.

The tree is suitable for planting for many sites and it is a sacred plant. The Wood is used for boat building and leaves for paintings. The Buddhists revere it as the Bodhi tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment. Later, the President visited the photo exhibition arranged at the site on the implementation of Telanganaku Haritha Haram.

P K Jha, , Principal Chief Conservator of Forests briefed the President that to increase the green cover in Telangana State from 24% to 33% with a target of 230 crore seedling & root stock, for which rejuvenation of degraded forests with 80 crore root stock, planting inside forest with 20 crore seedlings and planting outside the forests with 130 crore seedlings. The achievements under Telangaku Haritha Haram in the consecutive 4 years are 15.86 crores in 2015-16, 31.67 crores in 2016-17, 34.07 crores in 2017-18 and 12.13 crores in 2018-19 with an expenditure of 2,535.47 crores.

Savita Kovind, first lady of India planted a “Neolamarkia cadamba” plant which is an evergreen tree with horizontally spreading branches. It is a sacred plant. The flowers appear from June-August. It is grown as an ornamental tree. Cadamba yields a pulp of satisfactory brightness. Cadamba flowers are an important raw material in the production of “attar”. Governor E S L Narasimhan planted a ‘Mimusops Elengi’ plant and deputy chief minister Md Mahmood Ali planted a ‘Bignonia Megapatomica’ plant on the occasion.