Visakhapatnam: Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation, AP Forest Department and VUDA have joined hands to restore Vizag’s greenery post-Hudhud. Till now 63,000 points have been marked for planting saplings in areas across the GVMC limits. For marking the spots, eight divisional forest officers and 62 staff members of the forest department came to Vizag and worked in coordination with the zonal commissioners and town planning officials of GVMC. An undecided number of tree guards for the purpose and also some manpower be provided for the saplings by Vuda.
All the 13 districts of AP are contributing towards Vizag’s greenery as Dr K. Suryanarayana, IFS, conservator of forests (Social Forestry), said, “19,000 saplings have been brought in from the forest department nurseries across 13 districts of the state. There are another 56,000 saplings in the nurseries in Vizag. Most of the saplings which have been brought in are 2 years old and are above 6 feet tall, so that the lost green cover can be achieved faster. All the saplings are plant species which are either indigenous or can withstand gusty winds. Gulmohar has been completely avoided.”
The horticulture department of GVMC is providing the scientific guidance and approach in plantation. M. Damodar Rao, assistant director of Horticuture department in GVMC, said, “Across the city we have pruned the damaged trees and applied fungicides on the chopped part of the damaged trees. Wherever we could resurrect uprooted trees we did.”
