Agartala : The Border Security Force (BSF) Tripura Frontier has planted 1.28 lakh saplings of medicinal plants and fruit-bearing trees over a week in all of it’s Border Outposts and camps along the Indo-Bangladesh border of the states.
The plantation program was carried out as part of the celebration of World Environment Day.
The saplings belong to seven varieties of local seasonal fruits and nine varieties of medicinal plants, which have been promoted by the Forest department of Tripura considering the climate condition and scope of value addition for the larger market.
The BSF has taken advantage of the comprehensive social afforestation programme of the Tripura government launched last year targeting to increase the forest cover to above 80 per cent by 2023. The troop moots an idea to develop a medicinal plant orchard within their Frontier headquarters where they have established a hospital and other amenities.
In 2019, Tripura government had announced in the state budget to pay a monthly assistance of Rs 200 to each of the families for nourishing the plants on the roadside in front of their houses after launching a new project called – one plant @ one rupee.
The government departments are mandated to plant trees in their offices at least once in a year and maintain the record of its annual survival rate. Tripura has listed as many as 40 species of edible fruits and 18 species of high value medicinal plants and the
government planned to go for massive cultivation of all those varieties to make the state as a hub of bio-resources.
Inspector General of BSF Tripura Frontier Susanta Kumar Nath said BSF while safeguarding the territorial limits of the country here, has also accepted the challenges posed by deforestation and depleting biodiversity caused due to urbanisation and development.
“To contribute to Clean Tripura – Green Tripura campaign of the government, we have pledged Each One – Plant One mission this time among our jawans, family members and the civilians residing along the 856 kiolmetres Indo-Bangladesh borders. To begin with the mission we planted 20,000 saplings in our various campuses all over the state on June 5,” Nath mentioned. He further added that along with protecting the eastern border from any invasion attempt, BSF is committed to fight against environmental onslaught with the same spirit.
Saluting BSF initiative, Deputy Chief Minister of Tripura holding the Environment portfolio, Jishnu Dev Varma attributed that by planting trees and increasing greenery the state government not only contributed to India’s carbon sink, also, targeted to widen the ambit of forestry-based livelihood.
The state government is concerned over the fast extinction of indigenous flowers, fruits and other edible germplasm that affected the animal diversity in the state. “We are trying to create an action chain with behavioural change for each individual to become nature lover and live with a nature-based economy,” Dev Varma added.
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