Under the Tamil Nadu Green Mission, which is set to commence by the end of July this year, the Thoothukudi district is working on a mass plantation drive and has earmarked a 10-year plan for the same. While the state government is promoting afforestation activities in the whole state, Thoothukudi is emerging as one of those districts that is improving the green cover exponentially.
The initiative kicked off on World Environment Day this year on 5 June under the leadership of District Collector Thoothukudi, Dr. K Senthil Raj, IAS. The administration planted more than one lakh saplings on that particular day to mark the commencement of the initiative.
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY
After launching the green mission, a green committee was formed which included all the district Collectors, forest officers, and other members. The state government, too, has instructed each member of the committee to increase the green cover. Dr. Senthil Raj, while speaking to Indian Masterminds, said, “Thoothukudi is among those districts which have very poor green cover. As a part of the district’s green committee, we, hence, chalked out a plan where we will increase the tree cover throughout the district in a phased manner.”
He further informed that over a period of 10 years the administration, with the help of other departments, NGOs, community-based organisations, and civil society, will plant one crore trees in the whole district. On the day of World Environment Day, the administration launched the Green Mission Thoothukudi and ‘Thooimayana Thoothukudi 2.0’. Around one lakh trees were initially planned to be planted on that particular day. However, Dr. Senthil said, “we went beyond it and planted 1.68 lakh trees in a single day.”
The plantation drive was conducted at Karadikulam village in Kayathar block of Thoothukudi. The land was prepared for massive tree plantation of about 30,000 saplings on World Environment Day.
NGOs like TVS Trust, Grama Udhyam, All Can Trust and student volunteers and resident welfare associations were roped in for the plantation drive.
EXECUTION
As per the India State of Forest Report 2021, Thoothukudi district has 5.31 percent of forest cover. More than one lakh tree saplings have been mobilised from nurseries of the rural development department, forest department, horticulture department, and non-governmental organisations for the afforestation drive.
Dr. Senthil said, “We have 12 rural development blocks in the district and each block has its own nursery. A minimum of 10,000 and a maximum of 50,000 plants can be planted in these nurseries. The forest department also manages five nurseries of its own, whereas, the PWD manages two nurseries. Apart from this, several NGOs have also been working and already own nurseries. We are supporting and expanding them for more and more plantations. With this, we plan to plant 10 lakhs trees by the end of this year.”
Students and parents have also been roped in for the drive. The saplings the student plant will be named after them. They will also take responsibility for maintaining and nurturing the saplings.
The saplings comprise 14 kinds of traditional tree varieties such as neem, pungai (Indian Beech tree), poovarasu (Indian Tulip tree), puli (tamarind), and vagai (Albizia Lebbeck).
Over 30,000 casuarina seedlings have been mobilised from Tiruchy to form a green belt around the stone quarries, which will be under the maintenance of the concerned Revenue Divisional Officer (RDO) who will ensure water supply through drip irrigation by quarry operators, Dr. Senthil said.
This mass afforestation drive in Thoothukudi, that is expected to take the percentage of green cover from 5 to 33%, will provide benefits like preventing soil erosion, air pollution, and groundwater sustainability.
