6,500 trees planted in a single minute in Tripura’s Gomati district: Govt

The massive plantation drive was carried out in a coordinated fashion with Chief Minister Biplab Deb himself participating in the Van Mahotsav event organized at Udaipur in the district, 50 km from Agartala.

Saplings were also planted across 1,500 hectares of land in 2014-15. However, only 50 per cent of them survived. (Twitter @BjpBiplab)

A total of 6,500 trees were planted along National Highway- 8 in Tripura’s Gomati district in a single minute on Saturday, a first of its kind record in the state, the government has claimed. The massive plantation drive was carried out in a coordinated fashion with Chief Minister Biplab Deb himself participating in the Van Mahotsav event organized at Udaipur in the district, 50 km from Agartala.

A press statement issued from the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) informed that 6,500 trees were planted in one minute along National Highway- 8.

Saplings were also planted across 1,500 hectares of land in 2014-15. However, only 50 per cent of them survived.

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The press note from CMO also said that as a result of the new government’s ‘special attention’ towards conserving of environment, it has taken initiative for increasing the area covered under new plantation and in 2018-19, the government covered 5,500 hectares of land under this initiative.

A senior forest official said that plantation was done in 5,500 hectares area this year and 71 per cent of these saplings have survived. He also said the plantation drive was boosted this year after three consecutive years of decreasing afforestation trend.

Chief Minister Biplab, who joined the Vanamahotsava event as chief guest, announced that his government would introduce a special scheme to preserve the environment. People living or having land near ‘main roads’ would get Rs 200 per month for planting trees and maintenance, announced.

According to the CM, nearly 2 lakh families will benefit from this scheme. Nearly 40,000 trees were planted across the state through different government departments this year.

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PCCF (Principal Chief Conservator of Forests) Alinda Rastogi had earlier told indianexpress.com that the government is also trying to involve BSF, Tripura Police and Tripura State Rifles (TSR) to explore their manpower potential in greenery management.