17 lakh saplings for west zone greenery

Kukatpally: As part of the Haritha Haram project, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) is raising 17 lakh saplings that would be distributed across the west zone. The Telangana Government earlier announced that this year the target was to plant one crore saplings.

P Yadagiri, Deputy Director, Urban Biodiversity wing, GHMC, said all are perennial plants including rose, jasmine, marigold, chrysanthemum, money plants, and others. The plants were chosen after a lot of care and deliberation.

Speaking about the survival rate, the GHMC official said that the survival rate at present is 80 per cent. A lot of deliberation and discussion went into choosing the plant species to suit the climate and soil.

"We are raising these saplings at various nurseries that belong to GHMC, 2 lakh saplings at Mullakatwa Park, 2 lakh of saplings at KPHB Road no 1, 4 lakh of saplings at the Green Park and 2 lakh saplings at Railway Employees Colony, Alwal Circle.

In addition, we are raising another 7 lakh at a private nursery near Kongar Kalan and at Hi-tech Poly House for better quality production. At some places, we got very tall trees under which these plants are raised. In the month of July, plant distribution would begin and all these plants would be distributed to all the households in Kukatpally zone," added Yadagiri.