The Union minister for Forest & Environment Ashwini Choubey said the Telangana state ranked top in the country in sapling plantation during the last three years. In a reply to a question from a member of parliament from Maharashtra, the minister in his written reply said Hyderabad city topped all metro cities in increasing green cover.
It was chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao who at the time of launching the green endeavour – ‘Telangana ku Haritha Haram’ pointed out that Canada had the highest percentage of trees, Brazil is protecting its Amazon forest and China is planning 5,000 kilometres of green cover. This Telangana ku Haritha Haram should be another such massive exercise.
Mr KCR took it as prestigious to ensure the regeneration of the lost forests, raise new forest tracts and increase green cover in habitations as well. Since 2015, the Telangana state has planted a total 268.13 crore trees all over. The state developed Palle Prakruthi Vanams and Pattana Prakruthi Vanams, mini forests in rural and urban areas in 19,000 habitations and set up 2,700 tree parks across the state.
The green cover in Telangana which was 19,854 square kilometres in 2015, now stands at 21,214 square kilometres in 2021. The Telangana government had spent Rs. 9 crores to raise saplings and set up thousands of nurseries in all villages and instructed all the local bodies to allocate 10 per cent of their budget to improve green cover.
By Gollapudi Srinivasa Rao