An ambitious project to make Sohra green again has started today with Union Home Minister Amit Shah announcing that the entire area of Sohra would be adopted by Assam Rifles for the purpose of plantation.
Speaking at the launch of the Green Sohra Afforestation Campaign, Shah that 80 per cent of the total land will be planted with traditional and long lifespan trees and the remaining 20 per cent will be used for animal feed, ornamental plants and nursery which will meet all the requirements and help reduce the felling of long lifespan trees.
“With this technique, multi-level farming is done and the forest grows 30 times faster and after three years it becomes free of maintenance. Eco-tourism will be greatly benefited by this, besides tourism of Meghalaya will also get a boost,” Shah said and gave the slogan “Evergreen North East”, underlining the importance of afforestation and tree plantation.
The Home Minister said that earlier Sohra used to have rains throughout the year, but due to indiscriminate harvesting in the name of development, the situation has changed.
Shah said that today the whole world is fighting against global warming and climate change. He said that with the proposed action plan of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the Paris Agreement, the whole world is fighting against global warming and carbon emissions.
“The battle we are going to fight cannot be successful without the cooperation of the general public at the district and village levels,” he said even as he called upon all villages to cooperate in tree plantation programmes being carried out by the paramilitary forces at various places and help the paramilitary forces in the plantation of 10 crore saplings and nurturing them.
Shah also visited Ramakrishna Mission, Sohra and garlanded the statue of Swami Vivekananda and participated in the prayers programme. He also met the dignitaries of Ramakrishna Mission.
DONER Minister G Kishen Reddy, Minister of State for Science & Technology and Department of Space Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (DONER) B L Verma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya Conrad Sangma and senior officials of both central and state governments were also present.
