Forest department to plant 4.25 lakh saplings, restore greenery lost to Vardah

CHENNAI: The forest department has started the preparatory work to plant 4.25 lakh saplings in the cyclone Vardah-battered Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts.

The afforestation programme was announced some time ago as these districts lost thousands of trees during the cyclone in December last year.

The proposal by the department has three components – planting two-metre tall saplings on avenues and public areas, planting tall saplings in reserved forests which were also affected due to the cyclone, and the third component is to sell small saplings at 10/ a piece to the public.

A senior forest official said while the first two components are aimed at greening efforts by the department, the objective of the third one is to help members of the public interested in taking up afforestation in their locality.

In Chennai, the department has raised 1.02 lakh saplings which will be sold to public; in Kancheepuram it is 50,000 and in Tiruvallur it is nearly one lakh.

Of the total saplings, 1.30 lakh tall saplings will be planted in the reserved forest areas in the three districts. “Vardah not only pulled down trees along avenues. It also knocked down the naturally grown trees inside the reserved forests,” the officer said.

In Chennai the saplings are raised in three nurseries in Velachery, Anna Nagar and Karasangal near Padappai. In Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur, 10 nurseries have raised the saplings, he said.

“Rain in the past couple of weeks has brought down the temperature in the districts. So, the department has started the work of digging pits. The planting work already began in a few places in Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur. In Chennai, it will start next week,” he said.

This time the department has decided to plant saplings of local species instead of the shallow-rooted, exotic flowering plants. For avenues and public places, it was decided to plant tamarind, jamoon and neem trees. Teak, red sanders, mahogony, pungan, magizham and nagalingam would be planted in the reserve forest areas.

Apart from the government, many private entities also took up afforestation in various parts of the state after Vardah. NGOs TIST India and Rehoboth Foundation have convinced a few companies to spend the CSRfunds on tree planting. Joseph Rexon of the TIST India said they planted 3,500 saplings in the last three weeks. “We will try to convince more companies to take up afforestation programmes with their CSR funds,” Rexon added.

Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/forest-department-to-plant-4-25-lakh-saplings-restore-greenery-lost-to-vardah/articleshow/59520741.cms