CHENNAI: Citing a DT Next study report that warned of decreasing forests in the state and increase of thorny forest areas, PMK founder S Ramadoss urged the state government to intensify tree planting activities carried out by the Green Tamil Nadu Mission to avoid degradation of forest.

In a statement, the senior leader said that the Centre for Climate Change and Disaster Management in Anna University has warned that the area of thorny forest will be increased by 71 per cent in 25 years.

Also, the extent of evergreen and deciduous forest will reduce.

"The state government should take measures to prevent this. Green Tamil Nadu Mission, which was launched to increase the forest cover of the state from 24 per cent 33 per cent, should intensify its activities. The government should make tree planting a mass movement. Forest department should encourage tree planting in public and private places," he opined.

He urged the department to plant more trees on hilly terrains and community forest areas to reduce temperature in the cities near hill areas.

"Even though forests cannot be created in densely populated cities like Chennai, measures to be taken to plant Miyawaki forest in OSR lands and plants in the middle of the roads and flyovers to increase green cover," he added.

He also requested the government to use helicopters to disperse seed balls over the hills and plant more trees so that summer temperatures could be reduced by 2 to 8 degree Celsius.

"If such measures are taken, we can live with less thermal discomfort in the next 10 years," he said.