CM, Ministers plant saplings at Nandini’s man-made forest

Central Chronicle News
Bhilai, Sep 15: On Wednesday, Chief Minister inspected the man-made forest project in Nandini of Durg District. This project has been developed in the abandoned limestone mines of Nandini. About Rs 3.30 crore has been spent on this project. Under the Jan – Van programme, Chief Minister planted a banyan tree here and took a round of the forest.
It is noteworthy that this project has been funded from DMF and other heads. This project was chalked out on the instructions of Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel for environmental protection. This initiative of converting the abandoned mines into forests has set an example before the country and the world.
In his address, Chief Minister said that this is a laudable step to protect the environment. He instructed the officials to plant medicinal and fruit bearing trees in 100 acres land in this forest. He added that this big initiative for environmental protection will also help in controlling pollution.
In his address, Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar said that the state government has taken big decisions to save nature. Be it the Lemru project or the plantation on the banks of rivers, the state government has always given importance to nature. Nandini’s man-made forest is another milestone in this direction.
On this occasion, Durg District Guardian Minister and Forest Minister Mohammad Akbar, PHE Minister Guru Rudra Kumar and Higher Education Minister Umesh Patel also planted saplings in the forest.
It needs to be mentioned here that many teakwood and gooseberry trees already exist in Nandini’s forest spread over an area of 17 km. Now 83,000 saplings have been planted in the vacant space. For this project, funds have been approved from DMF-ADB. PCCF Rakesh Chaturvedi gave detailed information about the project and congratulated the officials engaged in this work.
CF Shalini Raina also congratulated the project team. Collector Dr Sarveshwar Narendra Bhure and DFO Dhammsheel Ganveer gave detailed information about the project to the Chief Minister. They said that 83000 saplings have been planted here. In the coming three years, this area will be fully developed as a forest.
With the plantation of diverse species of plants here, a rich natural environment will be created here. Ganveer said that trees like Peepal, Banyan have been planted here, which have a very long life, as well as medicinal trees like Harra, Behada, Mahuva have also been planted.
PCCF (Forest Conservation) Narsingh Rao, MD of Minor Forest Produce Sanjay Shukla, IG Vivekanand Sinha, and other officers were present on this occasion. In addition, BSP CEO Anirban Dasgupta was also present.
The entire project has been developed in such a way that it will also become ideal habitat for birds and will develop into a bird park. There is a huge wetland where Whistling Ducks, Open Bill Starks etc have already been seen.
Along with this, special arrangements will also be made to facilitate the visitors for taking a round in this forest. Necessary action plan has been made so that it can be included in the best places to visit not only in Chhattisgarh but in the country.