In the wake of the forest department’s initiative to plant 33 crore saplings in 2019, the Directorate of Technical Education (DTE) has directed the colleges under its jurisdiction to plan 500 saplings each.
The DTE has sent letters to all the colleges offering various degrees like engineering, pharmaceutical, hotel management, MBA etc in all the districts of Nagpur division to take part in the sapling plantation drive of the forest department.
Under this sapling plantation programme, the DTE has asked the colleges to ensure that teachers, employees, students are registered as ‘Green Army’ on the website created by the department.
They would also have to submit a report about digging of pits for sapling plantation, stated a letter sent to colleges by DTE on April 24. However, most colleges did not take this letter seriously, following which joint director (in-charge) Dr Chandrasekhar Thorat has written another letter to all the colleges asking about what action they have taken in this regard so far. Due to continuous pressure, colleges have swung into action and are now chalking out plans to take part in the afforestation drive.
Under the drive, 26,600 saplings are to be planted by the DTE, hence each college has been asked to plant 500 saplings. In 2013, after the state government’s initiative, DTE had given a target of planting 100 saplings to the affiliated colleges. However, many colleges took it lightly and no report was sent to the DTE. Hence, there was no information about how many saplings were planted by the colleges and how many survived.
