PM Imran Khan at a plantation drive. PHOTO: PTI/FILE
ISLAMABAD: The federal government has set a target of planting 140 million saplings across the country during a campaign which will be inaugurated by the prime minister in the first week of the August.
The monsoon plantation drive will kick off by planting a sapling on the “Plant for Pakistan” day.
Around one million sapling will be planted on the first day for which a ceremony to inaugurate the drive will be held at 161 places.
According to documents, nine million saplings will be planted in Punjab, 104 million in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, 15 million in Sindh, 1.2 million in Balochistan, 3.3 million in Gilgit-Baltistan, seven million in Azad Kashmir and 0.5 million in Islamabad.
On the first day of the campaign, one million saplings will be planted -- 224,000 of them in Punjab, 600,000 in Sindh, 70,000 in K-P, 10,000 in Balochistan, 5,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and 3,000 in Islamabad.
Punjab Forest Department Deputy Director Mohammad Salim Malik said school students, college students, members of non-governmental organisations and citizens from every corner of life will participate in planting saplings in their respective areas.
“Saplings will be planted in various parks including Jallo Park, Karol Jungle and Changa Manga Forest and their surrounding areas. Similarly, over 343,000 saplings will be planted on August 8 and 9 under the campaign name of Plant for Punjab.”
The forest department will also provide 0.3 million plants to the Pakistan Army as part of Sarsabz-o-Shadab Pakistan programme. An official of the department told The Express Tribune that citizens can get plants at an affordable price from nurseries of the forest department.
Three-month tree plantation drive begins
Earlier this year, the Ministry of Climate Change planted around 95.4 million saplings across the country under the “Plant for Pakistan” programme.
A target of planting 141,600,000 saplings during the spring season was set across the country. The target was set at 12 million saplings in Punjab, 13 million, 10 million in K-P, 1.2 million in Balochistan, 4.8 million in AJK and seven million in G-B as well as 500,000 each by the Capital Development Authority, the National Highway Authority and the Defence Ministry along with 20,000 by the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex.
The ministry had recovered some 2,500 acres occupied public land in Baluki where the Prime Minister Imran Khan had kicked-off the campaign on February 9 at the beginning of spring season while the ministry had exceeded its target on the given day by planting more than five million saplings.
All hospitals, dispensaries, farmhouses and agricultural farmhouses across the country took part in the drive on February 14 while the civil aviation department and the jail departments planted saplings on February 15. The educational institutions including school, colleges and universities participated in the campaign on February 15.
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