PATHANAMTHITTA: The Omalloor grama panchayat here will plant over a lakh fruit saplings across its jurisdiction on the environmental day on June 5. The panchayat has divided the available MNREGA task force by forming 19 groups to produce the saplings in five cents of land by each group. The work to produce 5,000 to 10,000 saplings by each group as per the availability of land was started six months back.
The Elanthoor block has set a target of two lakh saplings of which half of them have already been produced by the Omalloor panchayat, said president Geetha Vijayan. This will go hand in hand with Harita Keralam project. "The project is part of producing some 20 million saplings across the state under the MNREGA alone. In Pathanamthitta district, over 16 lakh fruit saplings will be produced in all the eight blocks. Omalloor panchayat has produced the highest number of saplings," Mr G. Krishnakumar, MNREGA joint programme coordinator, told DC.
The saplings include that of different varieties of mango trees, jack fruit trees, mangosteen, rambutan, coconut tree, cashew, pomegranate and tamarind. The saplings that have been grown in nurseries will be planted in various spots across the panchayat with the help of Kudumbasree groups, students and social workers on environmental day.
