Green Punjab

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal will launch the “Green Punjab” mission from Hoshiarpur and Fazilka on July 1 to generate awareness among the masses on the need for a clean and pollution-free environment by initiating a massive plantation drive across the state.
The Chief Minister took this decision at a meeting with senior officers of the Forests and Wildlife Department here.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests said the mission had become all the more important with the constant rise in the level of air pollution, caused by heavy traffic and industrial influx, besides the alarming proportion of water pollution. Soil pollution due to excessive use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides, coupled with waterlogging and rise of salinity in Punjab had further aggravated the problem.
The Chief Minister asked the Forests and Wildlife Department to launch a plantation drive across the state to increase the green cover from the existing 7 per cent to 15 per cent over a period of 15 years on all available institutional land, panchayat land, mandis, jails, paramilitary areas, hospitals, educational institutions, cremation grounds, focal points, PSEB colonies and urban areas.
The Chief Minister asked the Rural Development and Panchayats Department to motivate village panchayats to plant trees over 150,000 acres of panchayat land. The Punjab Vidhan Sabha had already passed a resolution to plant trees on 20 per cent of panchayat land.
He sought the cooperation and support of farmers for implementing the government’s initiatives for making Punjab more green. Badal asked the Forest Department to work out modalities for generating additional resources to make the tree plantation drive financially sustainable.
Forest Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani said the department had already prepared a perspective plan for 15 years. The jurisdiction of forest beats was being revised to cover forest as well as non-forest areas.
New beat boundaries would now be carved out village-wise. He said the newly recruited 180 forest guards were being trained to handle the tree plantation drive in villages.