Guwahati: Assam environment and forest minister Chandra Mohan Patowary on Saturday (September 9) said that the state government will target to plant three crore saplings on a single-day in 2024.
“Efforts will be made to produce these saplings in the state government nurseries under the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund next year and not to procure from other sources. As many saplings planted each year die due to various reasons, we will try to grow all these trees successfully this time and ensure a high success rate,” Patowary said.
Meanwhile, the forest minister on Saturday (September 9) formally launched a series of activities as part of the “Amrit Briksha Andolan” campaign in a programme organised at the Veterinary College playground at Khanapara in Guwahati.
The first event, attempting a world record, which was launched in the program is the longest line of potted seedlings being arranged in a spiral pattern in a 22 kilometre line with 3.5 lakh saplings. The seedlings would be distributed among the public on Sunday (September 10) for the next set of events.
The “Amrit Briksha Andolan” is aiming at planting one crore commercially viable tree saplings on a single-day to create a world record. Apart from this, several other initiatives have been also taken to create additional world records. The objective of the campaign is to promote a tree-based economy in Assam and enable the people to derive economic benefits by growing commercial trees.
Patowary said that the Assam government is striving towards increasing the state’s forest cover from 36 per cent to 38 per cent.
Informing that 49 lakh people have already registered themselves on the portal for planting one crore saplings, he elaborated on creating altogether nine world records through the campaign, expressing confidence that all the targeted records would be achieved.
However, adjudicator of Guinness World Records Prabin Patel said that there are strict guidelines which must be followed to achieve a world record.