Minister of State for Forest, PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, Animal, Sheep Husbandry, Fisheries and Cooperative Mir Zahoor Ahmad today kick started a plantation drive at Zeethyar in Srinagar.More than 500 saplings of different varieties were planted in the drive.Speaking on the occasion, the Minister informed that nearly 3.5 lakh plants would be planted in Zabarwon Hills and Shankaracharya Hill soon.“It is important that we make our cities greener and cleaner,” the Minister said, adding that several initiatives have already been taken by the government to fulfil the goal of making J&K clean.Stressing that Nature has been very benevolent on our state and has made it a hotspot of biodiversity, the Minister said there is a need to work together and create awareness for conserving biodiversity, environment and ecology for sustainable development of the state.
He asked the participating students to come forward and spread the message of conservation and protection of the environment.The Minister said that environment and climate change are among the biggest challenges facing the World and efforts are being made by individual countries to effectively deal with this hazard. It is not an issue to be resolved by one country only but the entire World has to collectively make a resolve to address it by putting effective mechanism in place, he added.The Minister was informed that nearly one lakh saplings were planted in the mega plantation drive organized by the Department of Social Forestry at the BSF Headquarter in Humhama on the occasion of International Day of Forest-2018.Senior officers of Forest Department including Conservator of Forests, Social Forestry, Forest Protection Force, Divisional Forest officers and students of various educational institutions were present on the occasion.