Two naval helicopters fly past arid regions dropping seed balls

Visakhapatnam: Two UH3H helicopters roared over arid regions airdropping 50,000 seed balls in five locations spotted by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation in Visakhapatnam on Friday.

The joint endeavour of the GVMC, Eastern Naval Command (ENC) and Pragathi Bharath Foundation aims at increasing the forest cover by reaching out to the otherwise inaccessible water-parched hills and locations.

As a part of the massive afforestation initiative, seed balls were dropped at Pedagantyada, Aganampudi, Naidu Thota, Chinamushidiwada and Pavuralakonda in Bheemunipatnam, covering close to 200 acres.

The first-of-its-kind initiative was flagged off by Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, ENC Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain, YSRCP Rajya Sabha member V Vijay Sai Reddy, Municipal Commissioner G Srijana in the presence of Visakhapatnam MP MVV Satyanarayana, among others, at INS Dega.

Vice Admiral Atul Kumar Jain said the aerial seeding was carried out in five locations by two UH3H helicopters.

Elaborating further, Municipal Commissioner Srijana said the corporation is particular about using indigenous seeds for the purpose and the focus is on industrial areas and places where mining activities were discontinued.

Expressing concern over depleting green cover, Vijay Sai Reddy said that the aerial seeding intends to restore the lost forest cover. The mission is to disperse 1 lakh seed balls.