3 districts tasked with plantation of about 14 crore saplings

Hyderabad: Three districts in the State have the highest target of planting saplings as part of the current and the fifth phase of Telanganaku Haritha Haram (THH) programme.

According to the State Forest Department (SFD) officials, Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Siddipet are the three districts that have the highest target and three more districts, namely Medhcal, Mulugu and Asifabad have the lowest target during the current phase of THH.

The SFD officials said that a target of 83 crore plantation of saplings was fixed for the entire State during the fifth phase.

Out of this, 13.71 crore saplings have to be planted in Nizamabad, Nalgonda and Siddipet districts to keep up the green cover. Three more districts namely, Medchal, Mulugu and Asifabad have the lowest target of planting only 2.9 crore saplings .

"In all, a whopping 113.58 crore saplings have been planted during the earlier four phases of the THH across the State. During the fifth phase, it was decided to plant 83 crore saplings, for which, 100 crore saplings have been grown in the nurseries," the officials said.

However, the fifth phase of THH has many firsts from the earlier four phases of THH. This time, Agro-forestry has been given top priority to ensure additional and alternative income generation to the farmers.

Saplings of sandal wood, teak wood, bamboo, tamarind, flower and fruit-bearing plants were given priority.

Small and medium farmers are encouraged to take up growing bamboo under the Central government's Bamboo Mission.

Another important feature of the fifth phase of THH is that the plant varieties distributed were developed though the tissue culture method.

Schools, colleges, welfare hostels, university hotels and central government offices were also given priority during the current phase of THH.

The village panchayats were given supervision to ensure the survival and proper maintenance of the saplings given to the individual households in the villages.