Goa to plant 1.5 Million Trees this Monsoon

Uttar Pradesh improved on Tamil Nadu’s record of 8,52,587 trees by planting 10,266,736 trees in a single day. Goa’s forest department is not planning to set any record, but it’s ‘mega tree plantation’ drive from June 16 to 20, 2008 hopes to achieve a target of 5 lakh seedlings in five days, and an overall total of 15 lakh seedlings during the entire monsoon.Governor S C Jamir will inaugurate the drive at Government polytechnic, Curchorem at 11 am while the next day, about 150 schools and other institutions will hold functions at their own level to plant the seedlings. Panchayat Minister, Manohar Azgaonkar will plant saplings at Government multipurpose high school, Dhargal on June 18 to signal the drive by panchayat bodies in Goa. Forest minister, Felipe Neri Rodrigues will launch a drive on June 19 at government college, Quepem to mark the commencement of the drive by NGOs. Chief minister Digambar Kamat will launch the programme for mining companies on June 20, 2008 at Chowgule’s Pale mines. The forest department itself will plant 10 lakh seedlings, while panchayats and mining companies will plant 1.5 lakh each and education department 50,000. A total of 9,000 seedlings will be planted along the Konkan railway track, 11,000 by agriculture department, 1,000 by water resources department. The forest department is raising 15 lakh saplings at its 28 nurseries spread all over the state.