Raghubar kicks off River Festival cum massive plantation drive campaign

Ranchi: Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das said that it was due to the collective efforts of the forest department, van samitis and the people that after 2014 the area under forest cover in the state has seen a jump of .29 percent.

Addressing the people while starting the river festival cum massive plantation drive from the banks of Jumar river in Bodeya he said as part of the campaign 8.25 lakh trees will be planted on the banks of 44 spread across 24 districts on 244 kilometres of area. He said that once again time has come when people should plant a tree and extend cooperation to the government to make Jharkhand covered with forest to go in sync with its name as Jal Junglee and Zameen along with environment were treasures which needed to carefully handed over to the future generations.

The Chief Minister said that Karam tree which is part of the culture of the state during the festival of Sarhul one lakh tree will be planted and said that in 2018 also 60,000 Karam trees were planted. He said festival of Sahul and Karma are linked with nature and have been part of the culture and worship since ancient ages. He said that the intention of the state government is absolutely clear as in all the works of development special care will be provided on the environment. He said that rainfall only takes place where trees are found and if the rains fail than the production of crops will be hampered therefore he called for Management of land, soil, plant, water and human beings so that the life of the present and future generations is prosperous and the state government will work accordingly.

The Chief Minister said that realizing the water crisis the Prime Minister has formed the JAL Shakti ministry. He said that the state and the country were fighting against polluted water and the water management campaign will play its active role to realise this goal. He also urged the people of the state to at least plant one tree and spend one day for labour and asked them to make sure the trees planted by them do not get dry.

Chief Secretary DK Tiwari said that meaning of development has now changed and just by the construction of big buildings development cannot be achieved but development in sync with nature is real development and said that the massive plantation drive was an effort to establish coordination in this regard. He said that to push up the campaign the Prime Minister was providing Rs 4000 crore through CAMPA fund to increase the green cover in the state. 

A booklet on the plantation drive of 2018 was also unveiled by the Chief Minister. Those present on the occasion also included Ranchi MP Sanjay Seth, MLAs Jitu Charan Ram and Ramkumar Pahan and other senior government officials.