In a bid to increase citizens' participation in the drive to augment the city's green cover, the Pune division of the Forest Department has earmarked five hectares of forest land where they have proposed a smriti upavan, where people can plant saplings in memory of their ancestors.

The activity is part of the Joint Forest Management programme of the Forest division in Pune. A patch of land has been reserved for the smriti upavan at Taljai Hill, Parvati. It is likely to become operational by November end.

“The Forest Department in Pune has at its disposal almost 2,000 hectares of land. Most part of this huge land is now green. The last major plantation drive that the Forest Department undertook was between 1992 and 1997. However, increasing the green cover further is of immense importance for the future of the city where pollution level is going up by the day,” said Prabhakar Kukdolkar, assistant publicity and information officer (forests), Pune.

“So far, there has been plantation of exotic and non-indigenous varieties of trees like Gliricidia on the forest land in Pune. However, for smriti upavan, we are going to use only Indian species. People would be urged to plant trees in the name of their forefathers. We might even put up small name-boards in whose memory the sapling will be planted.”

Under the programme, the forest department will charge a fee from participants. Citizens could come and to take care of their plant in the absence of which the forest department will groom it.

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