Telangana Chief Minister Mr K Chandrashekhar Rao on Wednesday launched the fourth phase of the state government's ambitious plantation programme, ‘Telangana Ku Haritha Haram', from his constituency of Gajwel.
The CM planted a sapling at Gajwel town, before he traveled to several village towns including Turkapalli, Mulugu and Pregnapur.
“If we protect nature, it protects us. If nature exhibits its anger, then the existence of human beings becomes difficult. That is the reason why our elders educated us on worshipping nature, so that the rain god bestows his blessing on us,” the Chief Minister was quoted as saying.
KCR instructed the local MPs, MLAs and MLCs to visit Gajwel to observe it as a case study for the project and also appreciated all the officers for their work in implementing the programme.
Speaking to reporters, Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari said, “While the State government decided to plant 230 crore saplings under the programme, 81 crore saplings were already planted in the last three phases and 40 crore more will be planted in the ongoing fourth phase. This year’s concept is 'Haritha Telangana – Haritha Patashala'. Keeping this in view, the officials must make proper plans for the plantation at the open places in government schools."
‘Telangana ku Haritha Haram’ (TKHH) is a flagship programme of the state government aimed at increasing the state’s green cover to 33% as envisaged in the National Forest Policy, 1988. Introduced in 2015, the project was to be completed by 2019. The goal of the project is to plant 230 crore saplings.
TNM had earlier reported that owing to poor rainfall in 2015-2016 in the state, only 15.86 crore saplings could be planted. In the 2016-17 period, the government could only plant 31.67 crore saplings against its actual target of 46 crore. In the following year, 34.07 cr saplings were planted, bringing the total to 81.60 crore saplings.
It is unclear as to how many of the planted saplings actually survived.
The chief minister who started this ambitious project has however said that the project is a success.