The Assam Association, Mumbai has planted over 1000 saplings in the commercial capital of the country this year.
The saplings were planted at Rasayani village, Raigad district on the Mumbai-Pune Highway with the active participation of the members and support and guidance of the Forest Department, Maharashtra Government, said a press statement.
The association embarked on a project titled ‘My tree…. My Life….’ in the year 2016 with the objective to plant a tree for each family of the Assamese community living in Mumbai seeking livelihood, which is about 4000 now.
Accordingly in the year 2016, 1500 saplings were planted at the Belapur Nature Park in Thane district and in the year 2017, a total of 1200 saplings were planted in the hills of Kalambusare village, Raigad district.
With the successful completion of this year’s plantation, the Assamese people have achieved the initial target of plantation of 4000 trees i.e., “plantation of one tree per Assamese family in Mumbai”, said Binod Mudiar, president of the association.
The next step would be to plant one tree per every Assamese person, said Deepankar Borgohain, general secretary of the association. This was stated in a press release.
As in the last two years, a large number of participants took part in this green initiative despite inclement weather and heavy showers in the morning.
The campaign was well received by ladies as well as large number of participants from Anubhuti, a senior citizen Group of ONGC, Navi Mumbai.
The members of Rotary Club, Patalganga and Rasayani Gram Panchayat also took part in the campaign besides many local Marathi people from Navi Mumbai.
The Department of Forest, Maharashtra Government has an ambitious plan for plantation of 43,000 samplings in and around Rasayani village which is spread over several hectares of land.
The Sahyadri Hill ranges forming the western edge of Deccan Flood Basalt offer ample opportunity for massive tree plantation.
These hill ranges have sparse vegetation. Keeping this in mind, the Maharashtra Government initiated recently the biggest environment and forest protection drives in the State by setting an ambitious target of planting 50 crore trees during 2016-19.