Forest Dept to plant 22,000 saplings

The department had planned to plant 22,000 saplings along the 32 km stretch between Perungalathur and Madhavaram. The work has started now, with 1,200 saplings to be planted in the first phase. The officials said that all the 22,000 saplings would be planted before the end of the year.

When the bypass road was laid in 2003 as part of the Golden Quadrilateral project, the National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) had cut thousands of trees. The agency had then promised to plant saplings after finishing the work on the road was completed. However, this was not done even after a decade.

Now, the Forest Department has come up with the initiative to plant the saplings. Sriperumbudur Forest Ranger P Kalyan said, “After planting the saplings, we ourselves will maintain all of them for the next two years. After two years, they would give a green cover to the whole bypass, offering shade and turning the stretch beautiful. After finishing this, we are planning to plant saplings along the Tiruttani-Tirupati Road.”