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Green Visakha, a distant dream for Vizagites
The Green Visakha, a project proposed by Rajya Sabha member Dr T Subbarami Reddy, the then chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology to plant 40 lakh saplings in five years beginning from 2012 seems to be a distant dream for the Vizagites who have been crying hoarse to bring down pollution.
Visakhapatnam: The Green Visakha, a project proposed by Rajya Sabha member Dr T Subbarami Reddy, the then chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology to plant 40 lakh saplings in five years beginning from 2012 seems to be a distant dream for the Vizagites who have been crying hoarse to bring down pollution.
Highlights:
- Officials claim 80 per cent of 40 lakh saplings planted
- Experts deny figures, say it is boosted to satisfy higher-ups,
- The city’s green cover is less than 20% as against the required 33%
A project monitoring unit was formed with member secretary of AP Pollution Control Board as chairman and commissioner of Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and vice chairman of Visakhapatnam Urban Development Authority as members. VUDA has been entrusted to monitor the plantation.
``We have planted over 32.5 lakh saplings over the last five years from Bhimili-Anandapuram to Achyutapuram in south covering a distance of 50 kilometres and sought extension of one more year to complete the projects,’’ said divisional forest officer of VUDA P Raja Rao. But the experts in forestry say the figures have been boosted to satisfy the higher ups and mislead the people.
``The officials should have assessed the green cover by conducting a satellite survey and then started plantation. Mere claiming of planting saplings makes no sense if it was not visible on the ground,’’ said a former conservator of forests who also added that the saplings grew on its own without human intervention.
The green coverage of urban area is less than 20 percent in spite of having abundant reserve forests within the city limits. As per the government policy the green cover should be 33.3 percent of the total area.
Another expert said the AP Genco authorities have been indiscriminately chopping off the branches without forest department advice at times killing the full grown trees. Severe criticism came from the former civil servant and social activist EAS Sarma who suggested the VUDA and GVMC follow the orders of National Green Tribunal which suggested planting of hardy species and not what liked by the two government agencies.
By KMP Patnaik
