Pilot project to turn open spaces into green cover in Belagavi

Belagavi: A blanket of green is all set to be pulled over the city’s many open spaces and the areas abutting the roads before the onset of monsoon next year.
Plants measuring about 6-8ft, nourished carefully for a year at the forest department nursery, will be laid out across the city.
This pilot project was taken up by the Belagavi forest division, which was concerned about the decline in the percentage of survival of saplings planted in the city.The department subsequently took to nurturing these saplings in metal barrels or plastic containers having with a radius of 25inches at its nursery. The project will now be introduced across the state, with the forest department taking up the urban afforestation initiative.
At the Hoskote forest nursery, which falls under the Nesargi forest range, more than 20 species of trees are being nurtured and nourished. A similar exercise has been undertaken at the Kakti forest nursery, where over 2,000 one-year-old saplings are ready to be planted at the Jamboti Biodiversity Park, which is 18km away from Belagavi.
Pointing out that the handling and transportation of one-year-old saplings to various locations did not pose a huge challenge, forest department officials said that the chances of survival of these saplings was higher in comparison to the smaller ones. “Plant saplings that have been nurtured at the nursery for a year can survive despite water scarcity, while the smaller ones need more water during summer,” a forest department official said.
Deputy conservator of forests BV Patil told TOI that the saplings could survive even in conditions of extreme water scarcity since their roots were well developed. “More than 2,000 saplings were grown at the nurseries. By next year, this number will increase to about 14,000, and they will be planted across all cities for the urban afforestation initiative,” he added.
The chief conservator of forests, Vijay Bhaskar, who paid a visit to the Hoskote forest nursery, appreciated the efforts of the officials of the Belagavi forest division, and evinced interest in expanding the model throughout the entire state.