The residents of Balipara in Sonitpur district on Thursday planted around three lakh saplings in just 30 minutes in 78 villages in the area.
The saplings were planted as part of Project Communitree launched coinciding with Van Mahotsav Week 2019.
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The initiative witnessed participation of 47,500 individuals and is projected to impact more than 1 lakh people in Sonitpur district.
This project, aimed at creating and nurturing trees by the communities, was conceived and executed by various organisations–134 Ecological Task Force, Balipara Foundation, forest and environment department, Mahila Shakti Kendra, Assam Investment Advisory Society and Assam State Rural Livelihood Mission.
Chief conservator of forest Jatindra Sarma said the project will enrich green cover and build confidence, tolerance and collaborations between organizations working among forest fringe communities to restore forests and build social mobility in the area.
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“This will hence amplify the collaboration and strengthen future joint projects,” he said.
Ranjit Barthakur, president of Balipara Foundation in his message said, “Communitree is a landmark symbol of a great coming together of diverse stakeholders to nurture and secure our fragile natural assets, building deeply needed resiliency and adaptive capacities among both communities and biodiversity in the area. We need many more such large-scale cooperative efforts to emerge if we are to build a sustainable future for the Eastern Himalayas”
Through this initiative, the Balipara Foundation along with the part organisations and department also aims to educate people on the benefits of planting trees to reduce air pollution and create awareness on global efforts to address climate change.
In the future, this project will be expanded to engage communities in smart agroforestry and other alternate source of livelihoods like mushroom cultivation, self sustainable food forest etc.
The Balipara Foundation is a Non-Profit organization based in Assam in the Eastern Himalayas.
Established in 2007, Balipara Foundation partners with communities and local partners to enrich ecological civilizations and biodiversity in the region through its proprietary concepts, Naturenomics and Rural Futures.