2,400 fruit saplings planted in tea estates

From a Correspondent
Dibrugarh, June 11: In the tea estates of Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Sivsagar and Charaideo districts, the World Environment Day was observed with the participation of 500 volunteers from the Tea Garden Adolescent Girls’ Clubs and school children of 24 tea estates, who jointly took part in a mass fruit tree plantation drive.In the plantation drive, which was carried under the joint collaboration of Assam Branch of Indian Tea Association (ABITA) and UNICEF, around 2,400 fruit saplings of different species like gooseberry, mango, jackfruit, guava, blackberry, pear, pomegrate, litchi, leteku (Sapida), poniyal and white berry were planted by the volunteers in the residential colonies, hospital and school campuses and fringes of the tea estates. As part of the mass plantation programme, an interactive session among the magement and the members of the Adolescent Girls Clubs was organized to discuss on the issue of environment awareness and nutrition.  Moreover, the participating volunteers who vowed to take care of the saplings, hoped that the mass plantation of fruit trees would help in improving the nutritiol dietary intake of the tea garden resident families. The magement of ABITA hoped that this initiative of planting fruit trees would continue and more tea estates would be taken into the fold to grow fruit trees under the ABITA – UNICEF Child Protection and Nutrition Programme.