Sircilla goes extra mile to protect saplings

Sircilla goes extra mile to protect saplings
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In a bid to give more fillip to the Telanganaku Haritha Haram, the government’s flagship programme envisaged to increase the green cover in the State from the present 24 per cent to 33 per cent, the Rajanna-Sircilla district administration, henceforth, took up go-green initiative in a mission mode.

Sircilla: In a bid to give more fillip to the Telanganaku Haritha Haram, the government’s flagship programme envisaged to increase the green cover in the State from the present 24 per cent to 33 per cent, the Rajanna-Sircilla district administration, henceforth, took up go-green initiative in a mission mode.

The initiative comes in the wake of a debate over survival of saplings planted under Haritha Haram programme. It may be mentioned here that since the launch of the programme in 2015, the government targeted plantation of 15.86 crore in 2015-16, 31.67 crore in 2016-17 and a whopping 40 crore in 2017-18 saplings in three phases. Although the target was achieved, there were questions over the survival rate of the saplings due to lack of maintenance and post plantation care.

To address the lacunae, the government had come up with several measures such as - setting up tree guards, watering the plants when there are no rains and during summer and forming Green Brigades to protect the saplings. This apart, the authorities have also taken up geo-tagging of plants to maintain transparency.

Against this backdrop, the Rajanna-Sircilla District Collector, Krishna Bhaskar, has come up with the idea of observing every Shukra Varam (Friday) as Haritha Varam (Green Day) to take up the protection of plants in a mission mode. He thus instructed the officials to take up the campaign.

Following the call, people in almost all the villages of the district rallied around the Collector to implement the programme. Dumala village under Yellareddypet mandal is one among the many that responded to the call of their Collector.

Carrying pots, the whole villagers came out in a procession and watered the saplings.They also set right the displaced tree guards besides clearing the weeds. Krishna Bhaskar, who monitored the programme in several mandals, told The Hans India: “We will implement the programme in such a way that henceforth Shukra Varam will be called as Haritha Varam in the district.

There is no dearth of funds for taking up plantation drive on a massive note. All that we need is a will to carry the programme in a mission mode so that to ensure green corridors everywhere in the district.” Incidentally, Krishna Bhaskar is the first Collector in the State to respond to the government’s call - ‘Wear Handlooms’ on every Monday encouraging people to wear handloom clothes once in a week at least.

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