Telangana is going green. The 29th State is embarking upon an ambitious plan to plant 230 crore plants, with a view to increase the forest cover to 33 per cent from 25.16 per cent, under ‘Telangana Ku Haritha Haaram’ or Green necklace for Telangana programme.
The State will deploy Geographical Information System (GIS) and remote sensing images to take stock of the forest cover and to monitor the afforestation programmes.
Of the 230 crore plants, 130 crore will be planted outside of forest areas. The HMDA (Hyderabad Metropolitan Authority) area will take a share of 10 crore plants, with the remaining 120 crore seedlings will be planted in other parts of the State.
“This objective is sought to be achieved by a multi-pronged approach of rejuvenating degraded forests, ensuring more effective protection of forests. Social forestry too will be taken up in a big way,” a statement from the Chief Minister’s office said here on Monday.
About 3,700 nurseries will be given the mandate to raise the seedlings required for the programme.
This programme will be included in the ‘Mana Vooru Mana Pranalika’ (Our Village – Our plan) initiative that the State launched to go for micro-planning.