450 saplings of herbs planted as Van Mahotsav starts in U’khand

Dehradun: Uttarakhand forest department launched Van Mahotsav by planting 450 saplings of medicinal herbs in Chandrabani area of Asharodi forest range in Dehradun on Monday.
Divisional forest officers of respective divisions conducted the plantation drives in their areas. In Dehradun, the plantation exercise was kicked off by state chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat, forest minister Harak Singh Rawat, MLA of Dharmpur Vinod Chamoli, Head of Forest Force Jairaj, DFO of Dehradun Rajeev Dheeman and other senior officers of the forest department.
Around 300 saplings were distributed among the locals for planting while officials of other departments have also been directed to organise 'harela', keeping social distancing norms in place.
This year, the forest department has a target to plant 178.82 lakh saplings in 17,985 hectares of land by spending a sum of Rs 10,971 lakh. "Though I do not have much faith in afforestation drives as the chances of these saplings remaining alive is very slim, we should focus on saving natural forests. And deadly disease like Covid-19 can be prevented if we focus on keeping our environment clean and green,"said Harak Singh Rawat.
The plantation drive will be conducted under nine different projects of the forest department. Under CAMPA, 61 lakh saplings will be planted in 4,200-hectare land, while 25.83 saplings will be planted under JICA in 3,633-hectare land. These drives will be conducted under Namami Gange and other sub-heads too, like bamboo and bio-fuel spices plantation, National Bamboo Mission and Green India Mission.