Telangana: Sandalwood saplings to be planted in Haritha Haram scheme

Hyderabad: This Haritha Haram season, municipalities across the State will be taking up extensive plantation of sandalwood saplings. The municipalities have already placed an indent for six lakh sandalwood saplings with the State Horticulture department. Each sapling would be offered for Rs. 30 to the municipalities and the supplies would commence from July or August, […]

Hyderabad: This Haritha Haram season, municipalities across the State will be taking up extensive plantation of sandalwood saplings. The municipalities have already placed an indent for six lakh sandalwood saplings with the State Horticulture department. Each sapling would be offered for Rs. 30 to the municipalities and the supplies would commence from July or August, said Horticulture Department Director L Venkatram Reddy.

The good thing about saplings to be supplied by the department was that they would be two feet in height and their survival would be guaranteed. Apart from institutional plantations, municipalities would also be offering the saplings to households during Haritha Haram season. The Horticulture department has been raising an exclusive sandalwood saplings nursery at Mulugu to meet the requirements of different departments during the annual plantation season. Apart from the six lakh saplings to be supplied to different municipalities, eight lakh more saplings would be ready for supply.

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Welcoming the municipalities’ decision to plant sandalwood saplings, the Horticulture department Director said the move would generate revenue for respective local bodies, besides increasing green cover. After about 15 years, the trees would be ready for extraction of sandalwood oil, which is costly in the market. Apart from barks, other parts, including stems would also generate revenue as they are used in preparation of Ayurveda medicines and in religious programmes, including pujas and homams.

Many departments were currently taking up avenue plantation. This was incurring huge expenditure for them as it requires lot of maintenance. If the same expenditure and efforts were put in maintenance of sandalwood trees, it would generate huge revenue for the departments, he explained. It is not that avenue plantation should not be taken up, they can be planted in patches of couple of kms on highways and expressways, he added.

Of late, quite a few departments are raising sandalwood saplings and distribution to others and for plantation as well. Apart from Horticulture department, Telangana State Forest Development Corporation is raising a sandalwood nursery in Narsampally, Mulugu, covering 36 hectares. The Corporation is also working on raising more commercial saplings, including rosewood, red sandal, sandalwood in another 100 hectares in the State. The Telangana State Forest department is also planning to set up two model nurseries to raise sandalwood and other commercial variety saplings.

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