The Ghaziabad Development Authority (GDA) has launched an initiative to plant more than 1,60,000 trees all across Ghaziabad. The saplings will be planted at City Forest, Rajnagar Extension, City Park at Madhuban Bapudham colony, and Indirapuram.
GDA's horticulture department has roped in schools, technical institutes, RWA/AOAs, the civil defence department, National Disaster Response Force and senior citizen groups for the initiative. The programme was started on June 1 and is set to continue till August 31.
Speaking to City Spidey, SP Sisodia, GDA's horticulture in-charge, said that people were free to approach GDA and acquire plants whenever they liked. He, however, said that just planting trees was not enough. "The saplings must also be properly maintained and taken care of," he added.
The horticulture in-charge also confirmed that the tree-planting drive was mostly focussed on planting fruit-bearing trees. Apart from these, GDA has also planned to plant flowering plants and other exotic varieties sourced from the Forest Research Institute, Dehradun.
Alok Kumar, the FedAOA president, was all praise for GDA's initiative. He, however, added that it lacked a proper roadmap for the implemention of the plan in Indirapuram. "There needs to be proper discussion and planning at the ground level to execute such a plan," added Kumar.
