The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Corporation to set up Green clubs

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Apr 26, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Corporation to set up Green clubs

Special Correspondent

Effort to restore city's green cover

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In a major initiative to restore the city's dwindling green cover, the Corporation is embarking on a programme to take up planting of trees at the ward-level. A meeting convened by Mayor C. Jayan Babu here on Tuesday decided to launch the programme from June.

Ward-level green clubs will be constituted to promote tree planting. A core committee is to be formed to implement and monitor the programme.

The Mayor said the Corporation would identify public places to plant trees and launch an awareness programme among various sections of society.

A detailed schedule will be drawn up.

In the first phase, trees will be planted in the public parks managed by the Corporation. Other locations identified by the meeting include canal banks and the sides of highways.

Ward-level committees will identify locations for planting.

Participants in the meeting stressed the need to replace the acacia trees planted at various locations with endemic species. Another proposal was to plant the saplings of the same species on each road corridor to impart an identity to a location.

Saplings for the programme will be supplied by the Social Forestry Division, the College of Agriculture, Vellayani and the Museum and Zoo.

The college will also provide training and technical support. The Mayor emphasised the need for a long-term campaign to ensure continuity of the programme.

Social Forestry Division Assistant Conservator S. Janardana, Museum and Zoo Director Elcy George, K. Ravindran, Botanical Gardens Superintendent K. Jayan, former Chief Town Planner Thomas Paulose, Head of the Department of Floriculture at the College of Agriculture C.S. Jayachandran Nair, Chairman and Managing Director of ODEPC S. Sreenivasan, Horticorp Managing Director P.G. Ravindranath and representatives of Greentouch, Environment and Development Initiatives, Thiruvananthapuram (EDIT) and Secretariat Greens participated in the meeting.

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