HYDERABAD: The Telangana government has set a target of planting 19.91 crore saplings across the state in the year 2021-2022, as part of the seventh phase of its afforestation programme -- Telangana ku Haritha Haram. A special statewide plantation drive will be conducted from July 1-10. The state government has set targets for all districts. The target for Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation is 1.2 crore saplings whereas among the districts, the highest target is set for Bhadradri Kothagudem, at 1.04 crore.
The Telangana forest department, in a press release on Wednesday, said there are 15,241 nurseries across the state and 25 crore saplings are available. This year, priority will be given to multilevel avenue plantations along all National Highways, State Highways and Panchayat Roads in the state. Also, Miyawaki style of plantation will be taken up everywhere possible.
Since the launch of the Haritha Haram program in 2015, with a target of panting 230 crore saplings across the state, the Telangana government has spent Rs 5,591 crores till now and planted 220.7 crore saplings across the state. Of these, 159.88 crore saplings ahve been planted outside the forest areas whereas 60.8 crore saplings have been raised inside the forest areas, said the press release. As per the Forest Survey of India-2019 report, the green cover in Telangana has increased by 3.67 percent.
Also, the state government has decided to develop 109 Urban Forest Parks in the state, of which 35 are already ready and open for public, 18 are ready to be thrown open to the public and 56 are to be completed in the next one year.