Plants uprooted from avenue plantations under the 2015 ‘Telanganaku Haritha Haaram’ (TKHH) programme were not fortunate to grab headlines as the proposal for axing/translocating the trees in KBR National Park did, which was met with fury.
More than 16,000 saplings planted on the roadside as part of the Haritha Haaram programme had to be uprooted owing to various road development works and the Telangana Drinking Water Project, officials from the Forest Department informed under the condition of anonymity.
The plants, which were semi-grown and protected by tree-guards, had to perish at seven to eight locations across the State, covering a stretch of 40 kilometres. Going by the standard practice of 400 saplings per kilometre, the total saplings removed could be about 16,000.
The R&B Department, which was part of all Haritha Haaram meetings last year, did not exclude the roads which are up for widening, when providing the list of stretches for avenue plantation. Quick to learn from its mistakes, the Forest Department has now made it mandatory for its Divisional Forest Officers to obtain NOCs (no objection certificates) from the respective departments, and keep the district Collector informed before going ahead with avenue plantation in the next phase of Haritha Haaram.
The government is preparing to launch the next phase of the afforestation programme amid anticipation of good rainfall, unlike last year when truant monsoons had nearly failed the programme.
Nursery stock of 46.3 crore seedlings is available for plantation this year, which includes the left over stock from previous year, and freshly raised saplings for the current year, officials informed.
The planting programme for 2016-17 comprises 642 sites inside the forests covering 11,361 hectares of land, assisted natural regeneration in 364 sites of degraded forest areas covering 33,851 hectares, and 2,300 kilometres of plantation alongside the boundary trenches, besides 2,619 km of avenue plantation. Barren hill afforestation is proposed in 470 hectares.
For plantation in other Revenue areas, proposals are yet to be prepared.
“Each District Collector is supposed to prepare a district plantation plan. Government has made it clear that location of each site has to be mentioned in unambiguous terms. So far, site identification has not been done,” the official informed. While the budgetary allocations for the next phase of Haritha Haaram are insignificant, Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao has promised one-time release of the whole amount, and also more finances from the development fund, officials informed.
