Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi announced that Odisha plans to plant five crore trees across the State. This is being done on the clarion call of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, the ‘Ek Ped Ma Ke Naam’ Campaign, which is going on across the country.
Chief Minister Mr. Majhi said this while attending the 75th Van Mahotsav at Dumuduma Government High School today attending the ceremony as the Chief Guest.
Minister Forest, Environment and Climate Change Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia graced the occasion.
Additional Chief Secretary Forest, Environment & Climate Change, Satyabrata Sahu, PCCF & HoFF Debidatta Biswal was present in the ceremony.
The Chief Minister said that the public’s participation in this campaign, which was started on the call of the Prime Minister, is very encouraging.
It calls for planting trees at individual level and uploading photos. And the maximum numbers of 1 lakh 48 thousand photos have been uploaded in Odisha so far in this campaign.
It is very successful in Odisha. Among all the states, Odisha is at the forefront. As our population is four and a half crore, we aim to plant four and a half crore trees in this campaign, he said. He called everyone to get more involved in this program and upload photos by planting trees.
The Chief Minister said that in order to protect the public from lightning-related accidents, the forest department has planned to plant 19 lakh palm trees in the forest blocks of the state this year. This will be our lightning rod, he said.
He also said that cherry blossom trees are being planted in Daringbadi. He said it was a good campaign to put Daringbadi on the world cherry blossom map.
Similarly, there is a plan to plant about 5 crore trees across the state, he said.
Chief Minister said that environmental balance is very important for us. If we are all aware, we can prevent environmental change. He said that the cooperation and cooperation of the common people is necessary for this.
Participating in the program, the Minister of State for Forests, Environment and Climate Change and Labor and Employees Insurance, Ganesh Ram Singh Khuntia said that protecting the environment is the responsibility of all of us. He said that the change in modern lifestyle and protection of land, water and forest is now the responsibility of all of us. For this, he called to cooperate with the government’s program. Ekamra Bhubaneswar Lawmaker, Babu Singh also participated in the program and advised the children to be aware of the environment and plant trees.
Satyabrata Sahu, Additional Principal Secretary, Department of Forests, Environment and Climate Change explained the vision and mission of the festival. He said that massive plant generation program is being organized for roadside afforestation and urban afforestation this year.
The ceremony was held in the presence of departmental officers of forest department, dignitaries, invited guests, school teachers, students, media representatives.
Earlier, the tree planting program was carried out in the school premises in the presence of Chief Minister and other distinguished guests.
State level Biju Patnaik Award for outstanding forest conservation and afforestation work was awarded to Batasar Ban Sanrakshyan Samiti, Nabarangpur and Sagarpali Ban Sanrakshyan Samiti, Sundergarh. These two institutions were presented Rs 1 lakh each and the appreciation letters were presented.
PCCF & HoFF Debidatta Biswal delivered the welcome address.
A booklet titled 75th Forest Festival 2024 was launched which contains details of various schemes and programs of the Forest Department.
Prizes were awarded to the winners of speech, composition and drawing competitions to create awareness about forest protection and conservation among the school students.
Vote of thanks was presented by Aswini Kar, RCCF, Bhubaneswar.