Target set: Govt to plant 3.8m saplings in monsoon

ISLAMABAD:

The government has set a target to plant 35.8 million saplings of different plants across the country during the ongoing monsoon season. Climate Change Minister Senator Mushahidullah Khan was briefed about the campaign at the ‘Inter-Ministerial/Inter-Provincial Meeting on Monsoon Tree Planting Campaign – 2015.’

Provincial representatives told the minister that nine million trees will be planted in Punjab, 10 million in Sindh, 12.56 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 0.6 million in Balochistan and one million in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.

Representatives of Capital Development Authority told the minister that the civic body would plant 300,000 trees in different parts of Islamabad and 100,000 of them inside the Margalla National Park.

The defence ministry’s official unveiled during the meeting that they would plant one million trees.

Senior officials of the Pakistan Telecommunication Corporation, Pakistan Ordnance Factories, Heavy Industries Taxila, and National Highway Authority said they have decided to plant one million, 7,000, 2,000, and 50,000 trees respectively.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 30^th, 2015.