Drive to plant 22.1 lakh saplings begins

PUNE: The state government’s drive to plant 4 crore saplings across Maharashtra kicked off on Saturday.
As a part of the drive, 400 saplings were planted in Mundhwa amid active participation from guardian minister Girish Bapat, MP Anil Shirole, officials of the forest department, collectorate and Pune Metropolitan Regional Development Authority (PMRDA).
PMRDA has also roped in various developers from the city to participate in the drive.Various departments with citizens in the Pune district are slated to plant 22.1 lakh saplings during the drive, which will go on for a week here.
Of the 22.1 lakh saplings to be planted, the forest department will plant 6.87 lakh, the administrative department will plant 1.10 lakh, gram panchayats will collectively plant 3.25 lakh, and rest will be planted by agriculture and water resources departments and civic bodies, among others.
For awareness among citizens, the government has also started an initiative titled ‘Rope Apalya Dari’, under which various centres have been set up. The citizens can pick-up saplings for free from these centres and plant them in their neighbourhoods.
It should be noted that after 2016’s target of 2 crore trees and 4 crore this year, the state government aims to plant 13 crore saplings in 2018, 33 crore in 2019 and 50 crore by 2020.
My Plant app
To facilitate ease of picking up saplings from the government centres and help in maintaining them, the government has also launched an app for smartphones — ‘My Plant’. The residents can use this app to find the closest centre till July 5 and be a part of the initiative.