An action plan for 2024-2025 to enhance green cover in Pudukottai district under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission by planting 30 lakh seedlings of various tree species, including those with timber value and fruit-bearing ones, is to be executed in the coming months.
The action plan recommended by the District Green Committee has been approved by the District Collector and conveyed to the Forest and other government departments for its execution. All line departments, besides NGOs, form part of the District Green Committee.
Target has been fixed by the District Collector, who is the chairman of the District Green Committee for each government department such as Forest, District Rural Development Agency, Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, Agriculture, School Education, Public Works, Horticulture, Highways, Adi Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, besides for Pudukottai and Aranthangi municipalities and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board as to the number of seedlings to be planted on their lands.
The target set for planting of seedlings to the District Rural Development Agency alone is 15 lakh, while it is 6.37 lakh seedlings in the case of the Forest Department and two lakh seedlings each for Agriculture and Horticulture departments.
The Forest Department has already raised the seedlings in its nurseries in Pudukottai district. Planting is expected to be taken up during September coinciding with the monsoon season, a senior department official said.
Seedlings of timber value such as teak, mahogany, red sanders, rose wood and vengai and other species, including casuarina, neem, naaval, pungan, poovarasu, illupai, etti, and pala, are proposed to be planted in the current fiscal on panchayat lands, farmers lands and government lands.
From the target given to it, the Forest Department will be planting three lakh casuarina seedlings in the district on farmers lands under the Green Tamil Nadu Mission and 1.17 lakh timber species on farmers lands under the Tamil Nadu Biodiversity Conservation and Greening Project for Climate Change Response Scheme. Another 1.96 lakh seedlings of timber value would be planted on farmers lands through the Agriculture department.
The Forest department will take up planting of seedlings on lands belonging to farmers and along identified highway stretches, besides providing the seedlings to educational institutions and to companies to plant them on their respective lands, the official said.
Instruction has been given to the departments to upload the Geo coordinate information with respect to the locations where the seedlings are to be planted and post planting in the Tamil Nadu Green Mission website.
The Forest department in Pudukottai has selected around 200 farmers in the district on whose lands the seedlings of timber value and casuraina species would be planted free of cost. Watering and maintenance of seedlings would have to be done by the farmers, the official said.
