13.1.21

UP govt eyes mega plantation of 30cr saplings in July

The UP state government will plant 30 crore trees during its mega plantation drive in July this year.

The government has named this year’s campaign as ‘Vriksharopan Jan Andolan 2021’ to widen the ambit of the progamme and convert it as a mass movement.

This year, the plantation figures will be 5 crore more than last year’s target of 25 crore, though the actual number turned out to be 25.8 crore.

The plantation drive will be carried out by forest department and 23 other government departments. While the forest department will plant 10.8 crore trees, other departments will collectively plant 19.2 crore trees.

Being the nodal agency, the forest department has appointed a high-level committee to work out a detailed plan for the exercise. Officials said the detailed plan of the drive was being worked out.

The state government has resolved to increase the state’s green cover by 15% in its five-year tenure due to which the target for plantation is being increased every year.

The government’s target was 25 crore trees in 2020, 22 crore in 2019 and 11 crore in 2018.

Over 5.7 crore trees were planted in 2017.

According to the State of Forest Report, 2019, the plantation drives of the government are showing positive results. The report said that the state’s green cover increased by 344.6 sq km between 2015 and 2019.

The report added the greenery in the state was also increasing outside forest areas. It could be because plantation exercises have mostly been taken up on farmers’ land and government land outside forest areas.

The state’s green cover, which includes forest cover (greenery on forest land) and tree cover (greenery outside forest), is around 9.1% at present which is still less as compared to the national average of 33%.

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