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A Correspondent
Goalpara: At a time when deforestation has become a cause of concern, the Goalpara district administration through its ambitious project ‘Greening Goalpara’ , successfully planted approximately 15 lakh saplings during 2018-2019 year. This has increased forest cover in the district from 19. 90 to 26 per cent.
The ‘Greening Goalpara’ drive was initiated on July 27, 2018 by Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal at Dudhnoi. Within 19 days of the initiation of the programme, the administration, aptly assisted by all of its departments including Social Forestry, succeeded to plant about 12 lakh plants. However, the tally reached about 15 lakh in the district at the end of 2019.
“Since its inception, we have planted so far 15.34 lakh saplings in reserve forests, hills, waste land, school campuses, roadside and government buildings along with protective measures.
Across the district, various organizations, government staff, students and people took pledge to maintain saplings in each household which made the mission possible,” said Varnali Deka, Deputy Commissioner of Goalpara district.
“The vision was to plant equal number of trees to the population of the district, which will be approximately 12 lakh and 20 per cent additional plantation for the future generations,” added Deka.
“The success of the drive hugely contributed to the environment and especially made students aware about their surroundings and the role of nature in our lives,” remarked Nayanjyoti Rajbongshi, ACF, Goalpara forest division.
Meanwhile, commenting on the success of the project, Parvez Ali, a leading youth social worker said, “The Greening Project is mostly focused on urban afforestation. But the main challenge before the administration is to tackle the encroachments in the reserve forests and lessen the man-elephant conflict.”