Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Sri Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday joined a programme at the Government High School, Dumduma in Bhubaneswar on the occasion of the 75th Van Mahotsav Week.
On this occasion, Sri Majhi planted a tree on the premises of the school.
The weeklong Van Mahotsav beginning on Monday will focus on preserving heritage trees and encouraging people to join the plantation campaign, especially by planting saplings in the name of their mothers.
On this occasion, Majhi said, “On the call of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the ‘Ek Paid Maa Ke Naam’ campaign is going on across the country. It calls for planting trees at individual levels and uploading photos. The highest number of 1 lakh 48 thousand photos have been uploaded in Odisha so far in this campaign”.
The public’s participation in this campaign, which was started on the call of the Prime Minister, is very encouraging. Among all the states, Odisha is at the forefront of encouraging the campaign amongst other states. The Chief Minister said that there is a target of planting 5 crore trees across the state. As our population is four and a half crore, we should plant at least four and a half crore trees in this campaign, he said.
He called everyone to get more involved in this programme and upload photos of planting trees. For the success of this program, he directed the District Collector and the District Forest Officers to conduct joint monitoring.
The Chief Minister said that to protect the public from lightning-related accidents, the forest department has planned to plant 19 lakh palm trees in the forest blocks of the state this year. He also said that cherry blossom trees are being planted in Daringbadi. He said it is a good campaign to put Daringbadi on the world cherry blossom map.
Similarly, there is a plan to plant about 5 crore trees across the state, he said. Chief Minister said that environmental balance is very important for us. If we are all aware, we can prevent environmental changes. He said that the cooperation and coordination of the public is necessary for this.
Participating in the program, the Minister of State for Forests, Environment and Climate Change Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said that protecting the environment is the responsibility of all of us. He said that the change in modern lifestyle and protection of land, water and forest is now the responsibility of all of us. For this, he called to cooperate with the government’s program.
Ekamra MLA Babu Singh also participated in the program and advised the children to be aware of the environment and plant trees.
Shri Satyabrat Sahu, Additional Principal Secretary, Department of Forests, Environment and Climate Change explained the vision and mission of the festival. Earlier, the Forest, Environment & Climate Change dept secretary Satyabrata Sahu informed that about five crore trees will be planted this year utilizing 30-month-old saplings instead of the usual 18-month-old ones in Odisha.
In the beginning, the tree planting program was done on the school premises in the presence of the Chief Minister and other distinguished guests. On the call of PM Modi’s “Ek Paid Maa Ke Naam” campaign, the Chief Minister and other guests planted trees in the schoolyard.Â
