UP govt planted 100 crore trees in last 5 years, targeting another 175 crore till 2027: Minister

The participants at the conference noted that currently Uttar Pradesh has only three ecotourism spots -- Pilibhit, Dudhwa and Katarniaghat and called for exploring avenues in near future in order to take up the productivity of the states forest corporation.

The Uttar Pradesh government has planted 100 crore trees in the last five years and is now targeting another 175 crore till 2027, Minister of State for Forest and Environment (Independent charge) Arun Kumar Saxena said on Friday.

He shared the statistics during a day-long national conference organised here by the Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation to discuss ecotourism and innovative methods for using forest products.

''We have planted over 100 crore trees in the last five years and targeting to plant 175 crore trees in the next five years. We are working on various proposals dealing with forest and related industries,'' Saxena said.

The minister noted that the BJP-led UP government has made ''concrete efforts'' to increase green cover across the state.

Speaking during the event, K P Malik, the minister for environment, forest and climate change in the UP government, batted for making plantation drives a mass movement.

He suggested that people could be encouraged to take up plantation on personal events like birthdays, anniversaries or weddings, etc.

He said his department will also take up plantation of 75 trees in every village of the state on August 15 under its 'Van-Amrit' initiative as part of the 'Azaadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav' commemorating 75 years of Indian Independence.

The conference saw participation from various private groups, and also included knowledge sharing officials of the forest corporations from states like Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand, according to an official statement. The participants at the conference noted that currently Uttar Pradesh has only three ecotourism spots -- Pilibhit, Dudhwa and Katarniaghat and called for exploring avenues in near future in order to take up the productivity of the state's forest corporation.