Environment Minister Gopal Rai announced Tuesday that the Delhi government has set a goal to plant 35.38 lakh saplings in the 2022-23 annual planting drive. He also launched a helpline number — 1800118600 — for registration of resident welfare associations, non-government organisations and individuals willing to be part of the government’s plantation drive.
The relevant departments have been instructed to prepare for the drive by June. The exercise will begin from July, he said.The annual plantation programme of the Arvind Kejriwal government has helped increase the capital’s green cover, Rai said.
According to the latest India State of Forest’ report, Delhi’s green cover has increased from 21.88 per cent to 23.06 per cent of its geographical area in the last two years.Rai said of the 19 departments involved in annual plantation drives, only seven have submitted reports of the third-party audit of their sapling plantation conducted between 2016 and 2019.
He said that the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Combating Climate Change (Delhi) will now conduct the audits of plantations being done by all departments.
