Green Srinagar Initiative: Nearly 40 thousand tree saplings planted in first week since launch

Srinagar, Mar 24: Nearly 40 thousand tree saplings have so far been planted in institutions and individual households under the ambitious Green Srinagar Initiative which was launched on March 15 here.
Giving details the Deputy Commissioner Srinagar, Dr Shahid Iqbal Choudhary, said of nearly 40 thousand tree saplings of different varieties over 20 thousand saplings have been planted in 100 schools, over 12 thousand in different departments, about 1500 in different police stations, over a 1000 provided to different NGOs and about 3500 planted in individual households across Srinagar.
Dr. Shahid who is also the CEO of the Srinagar Smart City Limited which runs this initiative and oversees its implementation said the full target of planting 50 thousand tree saplings during the first phase of the project is expected to be achieved by the targeted date of first week of April.
The Green Srinagar initiative aims to make Srinagar green in the truest sense involving meaningful and smart plantation while bringing all plantation activities in the district under a single organized platform directing and managing them.
It also aims to gather and keep track of data of saplings planted in the district in order to ensure their post-plantation maintenance to get the desired results.
The project undertakes to plant 50 thousand Chinar saplings in addition to some 1.50 lac other tree saplings in schools and institutional areas and along avenues across the district during the first year. Plants exposed to public or vehicular movements are also being tree-guarded under the project.
Saplings have been made available at seven distribution centres set up at different locations one each in all seven zones of the district. Each distribution centre has been equipped with six workers and a dedicated vehicle for processing orders for saplings and undertaking plantation activities in areas falling within their respective zones.
Divisional Commissioner Kashmir, Baseer Ahmad Khan had flagged off a fleet of 10 dedicated green vehicles as part of the project launch on March 15.
Dr Shahid said besides the Green Srinagar mobile application the general public can call at phone numbers 7780819894, 6005830787 and 7006166039 to place their requests for plantation adding that order requests can also be emailed at greensrinagar@gmail.com.