Hyderabad: Forest Minister A Indrakaran Reddy said 9.02 crore saplings were planted so far this year under Haritha Haram programme against the targeted 19.29 crore saplings plantation. Over 30.29 crore saplings were being raised in 14,864 nurseries across the State. The target was to plant 20.02 crore saplings next year, he said during question hour in the Assembly here on Saturday.
Since 2015, 284 crore saplings were planted under the programme and 13.44 lakh acres degraded forest area was rejuvenated, he said. As per the assessment made by the Forest Survey of India, the cumulative increase in green cover in the State from 2015 to 2021 was 4.25 lakh acres, which was 7.7 percent growth, he added.