KALPETTA: In an ambitious plan, the Meenangadi panchayat in Wayanad is working towards a mission to become the country’s first carbon neutral panchayat. The multi-crore project, to be implemented with the financial support of state government, aims to reduce carbon production by bringing down pollution, managing emission and plastic waste and expanding the green cover of the local body.
Panchayat vice-president C Asainar said the initiative was launched in the local body on an experimental basis in 2014. An amount of `10 crore was also sanctioned by the government for the project in the last year, he added. As part of the scheme, a detailed survey has been conducted to identify the level of carbon emission in various sectors which include households, industrial units, motor vehicles, farmlands in the local body limits.
Various requirements and problems to be solved were also suggested in the report. Based on the study, the civic body has prepared an action plan. According to him, the eco-friendly scheme includes a set of programmes such as enlarging green cover, reducing pollution, controlling carbon emission, increasing oxygen production, awareness programmes, production of pesticide-free vegetable and other food items.
Planting of tree saplings is the main activity being carried out under the initiative and the local body targets to plant three lakh trees by next year.