Ahmedabad gears up for a green record with 6.5 L saplings

The state government's forest department is all geared up to turn Ahmedabad district into a green belt, literally- with the planting around 6.5 lakh trees at one go.

In a meeting at the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) office at Usmanpura on Saturday, chief conservator of forests, Jagdish Prasad, told the media that they plan to plant around 6.5 lakh saplings in Ahmedabad district from July 26 to July 31 under the Swarnim Prakriti Mahotsav.

The forest department officials say, by planting such a huge number of saplings, they intend to register for the Guinness Book of World Records. Pakistan holds the record for the record of planting trees, around 4 lakh at one go and chief minister Narendra Modi wants to beat that.

From Saturday, agencies willing to plant trees started digging pits to plant the trees so that more number of trees could be planted at one time. To turn the mega plantation drive a success, the AMC has entered into partnerships with NGOs, industrial estates, trusts and corporate houses. 

On Saturday, all agencies that are willing to join hands to plant 3 lakh trees in the AMC area, were called for a meeting to chalk out further plans . The remaining 3.5 lakh saplings would be planted in the AUDA area, in 68 villages of Ahmedabad district.

Prasad said that to monitor the tree plantation process, two volunteers will be kept at one spot. "The work of digging pits has already started. In the 84 places in the AMC limits, around 1.35 lakh trees would be planted. The Naroda, Odhav and Narol industrial estate would also have trees in huge numbers," said municipal commissioner IP Gautam.