Ludhiana: The Ludhiana municipal corporation has finalised plans to plant at least 30,000 saplings across the city during the upcoming monsoon season. Preparations are underway to identify suitable areas that maximise plant survival, with the overall target divided equally to plant 7,500 saplings in each of the city’s four zones. While the horticulture branch has already purchased and stocked 70,000 ready plants at the Rose Garden, officials are limiting the initial drive to ensure proper maintenance.Junior engineer of the horticulture branch, Kripal Singh, noted that the plantation drive is scheduled for July and will target around 25,000 to 30,000 plants. To ensure effective online monitoring and tracking, the civic body will mandate the geo-tagging of all newly planted saplings.Plant survival rate and safety measuresTo prevent the damage that traditionally plagues roadside flora, the maximum number of new plantations will be concentrated inside parks, where security is higher. Officials admitted that park-based plants yield a significantly higher survival rate than roadside plants, which historically average a low 40% to 45% survival rate. To combat this, the civic body has prepared 2,400 cemented tree guards to protect new roadside saplings.The civic body had planted 25,000 saplings in various parts of the city last year. In recent months, several established green belts were destroyed to clear the way for laying water supply lines; however, officials stated that replanting will begin in those zones as soon as the pipeline work is completed.Lack of inter-dept coordinationThe upcoming drive faces scrutiny over past execution failures, highlighted by a severe lack of coordination between different wings of the civic body. In a recent instance, the horticulture branch grew plants along the banks of the Buddha Dariya, only for the civic body’s own operation and maintenance cell to uproot them entirely during a routine drain-cleaning operation.Addressing these urban challenges, Haibowal resident Gurvinder Kaur highlighted a severe lack of green spaces in several neighbourhoods. She urged officials to use the regular July plantation drives to identify neglected grey areas, suggesting that the administration should hand over the responsibility of nurturing the new saplings to local residents while encouraging community-level planting.
