Negligence, lack of maintenance hit Haritha Haram saplings in Telangana’s Karimnagar

They were planted as part of the third phase of Haritha Haram near Lower Manair Dam; while a few trees have grown on their own, many have withered completely

KARIMNAGAR: Saplings planted as part of Haritha Haram initiative in 2017 near Lower Manair Dam in Karimnagar have completely dried up. Clearly showing negligence on part of officials responsible for maintenance of the saplings, what remain, apart from a withered stem, are a tree guard and a name board.

Incidentally, these name boards, which have the names of who planted the saplings, include boards with names like ‘Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’, planted on July 12, 2017, those of the then Finance Minister Eatala Rajender, former Forests Minister Jogu Ramanna and so on. These were planted as part of the third phase of Haritha Haram near Lower Manair Dam.

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While a few trees have grown on their own, a majority have withered completely due to lack of maintenance. This is a classic example of how saplings planted as part of Haritha Haram are being maintained. Negligence and lack of maintenance are said to be the reasons for the withering of trees.

The previous BRS government had launched the Haritha Haram programme to improve the forest cover. Besides distributing fruit and flower bearing saplings to residents, tree plantation was taken up in a massive scale in open places as well as avenue plantation. Mass plantations were also taken up in the name of Palle Prakruthi Vanams in every village.

In order to prevent monkeys from entering residential localities, monkey food courts were developed in some selected places by planting fruit bearing trees.

Besides constituting a green budget, a 10 percent amount from gram panchayat funds was also allocated to raise nurseries, take up avenue plantation, protect the saplings and to supply water. However, the situation has changed after the Congress government came to power. Trees planted in Palle Prakruthi Vanams and avenue plantations have dried up in many places across the district due to lack of maintenance.

That is not all. The monkey menace is also back with the animals entering the habitations as there are no fruits in the monkey food courts, which have also been ignored.