Drive to plant 69 lakh saplings launched

Chennai: Coinciding with late chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s 69th birth anniversary, Tamil Nadu government on Friday launched a massive drive to plant 69 lakh trees across the state by the end of this year at a cost Rs 66 crore.

Besides, the government also launched a separate drive to plant 50,000 saplings in districts affected by Cyclone Vardah in the second week of December 2016 and 2.2 lakh saplings inside forests in these districts.

Launching the massive tree plantation drive at the Omandurar multi specialty hospital on arterial Anna Salai here, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palanisami said the government has been carrying out plantation drives on the occasion of the late leader’s birthday every year.

Almost the entire cabinet and top bureaucracy was present at the event since this was the only major official function organised by the Tamil Nadu Government to mark the late leader’s birthday.

“Since people from all sections of the society welcomed the plantation drives held every year, the Tamil Nadu Government decided to continue the drive and plant 69 lakh samplings across the state at a cost of '65 crore and 85 lakh,” Mr Palanisami said in a statement.

The samplings would be planted in forests, schools, colleges, inside government and private firm campuses, on either sides of the roads and inside the parks.

Since Cyclone Vardah uprooted several thousand trees, the government decided to plant 50,000 more trees in Chennai, Kancheepuram and Tiruvallur districts at a cost of '13 crore and 42 lakhs. The massive plantation drives, which began on Friday, would be completed by the end of December 2017.