HYDERABAD: The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is gearing up to plant one crore saplings in its limits for this year’s Telanganaku Haritha Haram programme in July. The programme is aimed at increasing green cover, aesthetic value, control the pollution and temperature.
According to officials of the GHMC’s Bio-diversity Wing, the civic body has a target of 25 lakh plants for each zone to raise a total of 1.5 crore plants for 2021. Data with the GHMC shows that against the target of 3.2 crore saplings since the commencement of the Haritha Haram programme, it has planted 2.76 crore saplings till 2020 and achieved 86 per cent of the target.
GHMC is taking up plantation under various categories - avenue plantations, colony plantations, institutional plantations, open space plantations and graveyard plantations. Herbal, medicinal and flowering plants, and fruit-bearing and would be planted at major roads, minor stretches, central medians colonies, lake peripherals, alongside nalas and open spaces.
“As many as 600 nurseries are grounded in all zones of GHMC that will supply plants for the Haritha Haram programme. All these nurseries are geo tagged and their information is uploaded on theTGFMIS website,” said a senior official. V Mamatha, Zonal Commissioner, Kukatpally, said that their zone would plant 17 lakh saplings, which were grown in their own 100 nurseries.
“Apart from growing saplings for Haritha Haram, we are also distributing plants among the public for free,” she said. Earlier, GHMC used to depend on private firms for providing plants but this time, it has created hundreds of nurseries to avoid dependency for the green mission. Meanwhile, GHMC will also take up Miyawaki plantations to develop dense forest patches in the city.