Haritha Haram spreads its roots in Telangana

Hyderabad: Elaborate plans are being made for the forthcoming Haritha Haram this year with a special focus on planting saplings near irrigation projects and canal bunds across the State. This comes in the wake of Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s instructions to the officials to explore the possibilities of planting saplings in the untapped areas.

Accordingly, this year, authorities are drawing plans to plant at least 19.51 crore saplings. Among these, nearly six crore are likely to be planted near irrigation projects and canal bunds. For effective implementation of these plans, special teams involving Forest and Irrigation Departments officials will be constituted across the State. Telangana government had launched the Haritha Haram programme with the sole objective of increasing the green cover to 33 per cent in the State.

Telangana’s Haritha Haram is considered the third-largest afforestation programme in human history. In the last eight years, 243 crore saplings were planted with an expenditure of over Rs 8,511 crore. This aided in the rejuvenation of 9.65 lakh acres of forest areas in the State.

The initiatives taken up as part of Haritha Haram are yielding green results with the State being ranked second in the country in terms of increase in forest cover by 632 square km. In addition to this, Hyderabad tops among the megacities, which gained maximum green cover with 48.66 square km in a decade in the country.

All these facts are shared in the India State of Forest Report 2021. The biennial assessment of forest cover of the country is prepared by the Forest Survey of India (FSI), which has been mandated to assess the forest and tree resources of the country.

Green Budget, Fund

Not confining to plantations, the State government is focusing on the survival of the saplings. Under this initiative, the State government introduced Green Budget and Green Fund. Accordingly, it is now mandatory for the local bodies — both urban and rural to spend 10 per cent of their Budget on the plantation drive. This apart, the task to ensure a minimum of 80 per cent survival of saplings is entrusted to the elected representatives, failing which, they are liable for removal from office.

Telangana government had issued orders for deduction of Telangana Green Fund contribution from the State government employees’ salaries, All India Service officers, State Government Undertakings, including corporations, and other institutions employees. This apart, the fund is also being deducted from the salaries or honorarium or remuneration paid to public representatives every year in April, payable in May. These deductions are being made from the financial year 2022-23 and over Rs 64.80 lakh being collected so far as Haritha Nidhi.

Others taking cue from State

Many teams from different States across the country had visited Telangana to study the impact of Haritha Haram. On Saturday, Keerthi, IFS and Mohd Shabab, IFS from Kerala visited the State. They studied implementation programmes such as urban forest parks and forest rejuvenation under Haritha Haram. The officers visited Mulugu Forest Research Centre Nursery, Narsampally Reserve Forest Block, forest rejuvenation works and Yadadri model plantation in Singaipally, Avenue plantations in Gajwel town, Palle Prakriti vanam and GP nursery at Tuniki Khalsa and Sangapur Forest urban park in Gajwel range. The Kerala officers appreciated the greenery works, particularly urban greening activities such as urban parks, Outer Ring Road greenery and avenue plantation. Later, they visited Forest College & Research Institute, Mulugu and met Dean Priyanka Varghese.

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