Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government has set a target to plant five crore saplings under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Ek Ped, Maa Ke Naam’ initiative, Chief Minister Mohan Majhi said here Friday.
“The ‘Ek Ped, Maa Ke Naam’ campaign is going on across the country including Odisha. Under it, any person can plant a sapling and upload the photos,” he said.
The CM said 1.48 lakh photos have been uploaded in Odisha so far under this campaign, the highest in the country, while Kerala is at second position.
Majhi said this while addressing at the state-level 75th ‘Bana Mahotsav’, a tree planting festival here at Government High School, Dumuduma.
“As Odisha’s population is four-and-a-half-crore, we should plant at least an equal number of trees in this campaign,” he said. He called everyone to get more involved in this programme and upload photos by planting trees.
Majhi asked the district collectors and divisional forest officers (DFOs) to conduct joint monitoring for the success of the programme.
The state forest department has also decided to plant 19 lakh palm trees to check lightning strikes and resultant fatalities in the state. The trees will be planted in all forest blocks of the state, he said.
Majhi announced that cherry blossom trees are being planted in Daringbadi, Kandhamal district, with the goal of placing the district on the global cherry blossom map.
He emphasised the critical importance of environmental balance for everyone, stating, “If we are all vigilant, we can mitigate environmental changes.”
PTI