NEW DELHI: Lieutenant-Governor Taranjit Singh Sandhu on Friday participated in Delhi Development Authority’s (DDA) mega plantation drive to plant one lakh saplings across the city, directing the agency to appoint nodal officers to ensure the survival of the plants.
Leading the drive at Kamla Nehru Ridge, Sandhu, accompanied by college and school students, Resident Welfare Association (RWA) representatives and morning walkers, planted native saplings and called for a people’s movement to restore Delhi’s ecology.
Over one lakh native trees and shrubs were planted across 77 locations in the Capital as part of the DDA’s massive single-day plantation drive, one of the authority’s largest coordinated plantation initiatives.
Around 200 participants joined the Lieutenant-Governor at Kamla Nehru Ridge, including students from St Stephen’s College, Hindu College, Hansraj College and Maharishi Valmiki College; Mamta Public School (Vikaspuri) and Government Girls Senior Secondary School (Shakti Nagar); morning walkers; and around 20 RWA members, reflecting the initiative’s evolution into a people’s movement.
Sandhu directed the DDA to make such plantation drives a regular practice and replicate the model across Delhi’s other Ridge areas. He said such initiatives should be youth-driven and aimed at engaging young people, adding that this would help make future generations stakeholders in preserving and restoring the environment.
The Lieutenant-Governor said it was the responsibility of the present generation to hand over an ecologically rich Delhi to future generations. He further directed the DDA to play a proactive role in increasing the capital’s green cover by building a sustained, youth-led movement for ecological restoration rather than organising one-off plantation drives.
The plantation at Kamla Nehru Ridge included indigenous species such as Anogeissus pendula (Dhok), Cassia fistula (Amaltas), Butea monosperma (Dhak) and Gmelina arborea (Gamhar), all of which are well adapted to Delhi’s ecology and contribute to biodiversity, wildlife habitats and the Ridge’s long-term ecological resilience.
Simultaneous plantation drives were conducted at 76 other locations across the national capital, including Aravalli Biodiversity Park, Aastha Kunj Park, Sanjay Van, green belts and parks in Narela, district parks at Paschim Puri, Hauz Khas and Vasant Udyan, and Dilshad Garden Deer Park.
The plantation drive covered a diverse mix of indigenous species, including Peepal, Neem, Jamun, Arjun, Shisham, Calendar Tecoma, Bougainvillea, Murraya, Hamelia and Chandni. The species were selected in accordance with approved plantation plans for each site, with emphasis on those best suited to local ecological conditions and long-term ecosystem restoration.
Programme expected to improve air quality, reduce pollution
The drive is part of the DDA’s larger afforestation and ecological restoration programme to expand Delhi’s green cover, rejuvenate degraded landscapes and create healthier, more sustainable urban ecosystems. The programme is also expected to improve air quality, reduce dust pollution, moderate local temperatures.