Cadets of the National Cadet Corps (NCC) in Kerala have begun a drive to plant 1.25 lakh saplings across the length and breadth of the state, as part of an initiative launched on World Environment Day Wednesday.
The drive, called "Green Kerala 2013", will be carried out by NCC cadets attached to Kerala and the Lakshadweep, in association with Kerala state forest department and Southern Railways.
The exercise will see the plantation of saplings in vacant spaces, and extend from Kasargode in the north to Thiruvananthapuram in the south.
"The drive will begin Wednesday and continue on all Saturdays of June at 10 locations across the state," said a top defence official.
Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who also holds the environment portfolio, participated in the tree plantation drive, joining children who planted saplings at his home in the state capital.
Chandy is also set to inaugurate on Wednesday the "Haritha Keralam" (Green Kerala) project of the social forestry wing of the forest department at a premier private school in the state capital.
An exhibition of the Medicinal Plant Board will be inaugurated here Wednesday.
