The Churachandpur district administration led by DC, SP and forest RO on Friday carried out mass tree plantations at Patlen village where villagers from over 20 villages planted 500 saplings at an old poppy plantation site with the theme 'For Our Tomorrow, Say No To Poppy Today'.
The villagers along with forest chiefs from the Koite Areas Chief Association and KSO Churachandpur planted 500 different varieties of saplings, and the will be continued in the days to come in the areas allotted for more than 5,000 saplings.
On the occasion, Churachandpur DC Pawan Yadav said that the Green Churachandpur Campaign was initiated by state chief minister with an aim to plant one lakh saplings of mostly fruit bearing trees within a week at poppy plantation areas.
SP, Srivanand Surve thanked the CVOs for their participation saying that it will not be a weeklong plantation drive only as and whenever poppy plants are destroyed, they will plant saplings there. He said that the initiative by the CM is to discourage poppy cultivation, provide alternative livelihood for the poppy cultivators and to stop deforestation.
Forest division RO, Lhunkhomang Haokip, whose department provided the saplings on the occasion, thanked the CM for the initiative and DC and SP for the plantation that was carried out. He further said to include lemon, Emblica Officianalis (Heigru) and other important fruit bearing trees as part of the plantation.
The chief association and KSO also extended their gratitude to the CM for answering their prayer of planting saplings at the area.