COIMBATORE: The Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) will plant over one lakh saplings in 100 places across the city this financial year, as part of its efforts to increase green cover of the city.
Sources said suitable places will be identified in the 100 wards, including Open Space Reservation (OSR) lands, water bodies developed under the smart city project and the Vellalore dump yard for the afforestation drive.
Afforestation is being done at the reserved government sites with private participation by adopting the Miyawaki method at 75 places in 49.26 acres area and now, the CCMC during its budget for the current FY 2023-24 announced that the works will be carried out in 100 places additionally.
Speaking to TNIE, CCMC Commissioner M Prathap said the civic body has around 10,000 saplings, which were grown in the nursery at Vellalore Dump yard, ready for planting. He said about 30,000 saplings would be planted and raised on the 30 acres of land in the Vellalore Dump yard that were retrieved by clearing legacy waste through the biomining process, adding that they have sought assistance from the forest department and a few private NGOs for procuring the saplings for the afforestation project.
“A sample of the soil was taken from Vellalore dump yard and was sent to the labs for testing, where we found that the acidic value is higher, making the land unsuitable for tree plantation. However, in order to make it suitable for tree plantation, we have planned to slice, plough the land and remove a layer of the contaminated soil and fill it with vermi-compost and organic manure, which were obtained from waste processing at our Micro-Compost Centres (MCC),” he added.
Prathap further said that native species will be planted and the bunds of water bodies developed under the smart city projects will also be used to plant trees.