Plantation drive to celebrate I-Day

As a part of the ongoing plantation drive to celebrate India's 68th Independence Day, seedlings were planted at Asola Bhatti WildLife Sanctuary here.
The Chief Secretary S K Srivastava said that more than 4.16 lakh saplings have been planted during the drive so far.
Medicinal and herbal plants like Tulsi, Aloevera, Katripatta and Ashwagandha are being distributed to the citizens for plantation during the drive.
Secretary of Environment and Forest, Sanjiv Kumar also unveiled his plans of creating a butterfly park inside the sanctuary which was greeted with loud cheers from the accompanying children.
The program was held inside Asola Bhatti WildLife Sanctuary sprawling over an area of 4845 acres where 132 Infantry Battalion (TA) ECO Rajput (Eco Task Force) has been relentlessly enriching the area for the last several years by way of plantation of indigenous mixed species of about 45 varieties, said Delhi government officials.

This area, in the past, had been heavily mined till the Supreme Court banned all such mining activities in the area. The area which once bore scars of such mining activities by way of sparse vegetation and deep ravenous terrain, has now been slowly and steadily brought to a lush green forest where blank spaces are difficult to find.
The sanctuary was also being used to rehabilitate monkeys which stray on to the civilization areas. The civic agencies, to whom the forest department supplies cages, gets the stray monkeys caught and then trans-locates them to the sanctuary where they find a natural niche for their survival, officials added.