After claiming to have planted a record 6.63 crore saplings five months back on the banks of Narmada river as part of conservation efforts, the Madhya Pradesh government has announced that eight crore more saplings will be planted on July 2, 2018.
"Eight crore saplings will be planted in the districts located in the catchment areas of the Narmada river in a single day on July 2 next year," Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced yesterday while addressing a programme organised to mark one year of 'Namami Devi Narmade - Sewa Yatra', at Jabalpur.
Chouhan urged social organisations and citizens to come forward to achieve this target and to commit themselves to planting saplings and ensuring their protection.
While calling upon farmers to plant saplings in their fields, Chouhan said the state government had set a target to plant fruit bearing trees on 40,000 hectares of land in the coming year.
The chief minister said the government was committed to take concrete steps to prevent the release of sewage water into Narmada River.
"An amount of Rs 1400 crore has been approved for establishing treatment plants in other cities located on the banks of river Narmada and the works in this connection will start from the month of March ," Chouhan said.
He claimed that most of the villages located on both the banks of Narmada river have become open defecation free.
Chouhan said a total of 4000 'Muktidhams' (crematoriums) have been developed in different towns in 16 districts located on the banks of Narmada river and 8000 more will be constructed in the next financial year.
On July 2 this year, the state government announced that it had planted over 6.63 crore saplings at more than 1.17 lakh places spread across 24 districts.
This plantation drive was carried out under the monitoring of representatives of the Guinness Book of world records, but is yet to enter the records.
In a bid to create awareness about conservation of river Narmada, the state government had carried out 'Namami Devi Narmade- Sewa Yatra' campaign from December 11, 2016 to May 15, 2017.
This campaign had covered a stretch of 1,831 kms on the southern bank of the river, comprising 548 villages or towns, and a stretch of 1,513 kms on the northern bank comprising 556 village or towns.
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