By Ifham Nizam
The Environment and Natural Resources Ministry will today plant more than one million trees countrywide as part of the national tree planting day.
The main ceremony will take place at the newly constructed seven-acre botanical garden on the Sri Lanka-Japan Friendship Road in Battaramulla at 9.01 a.m.
Environment Minister Anura Priyadharshana Yapa told The Island yesterday that even the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has appreciated Sri Lanka’s initiative and ongoing tree planting programme.
The Ministry plans to plant 1.l million trees throughout the country to coincide with President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s birthday which falls on November 18.
Yapa said plans were underway, to plant indigenous trees and medicinal plants countrywide by November 18. Plants are categorized and distributed according to the climatic conditions of the zones.
The Ministry has issued circulars to every district and divisional secretariat in the country requiring their participation in the programme with instructions to organize tree planting programmes in their respective areas.
The programme has been named Honours to the President- Tree Planting Programme (Janadhipathi Uttamachara Ruk Ropana Wedasatahana). It has been organized as part of the Environment Ministry’s Pivithuru Lanka -Sobha Lanka Programme, a tree planting initiative that goes side by side with the Mahinda Chithana’s Country with Greenery policy. The Ministry had planted around 65,000 trees last year under the Pivithuru Lanka Sobha Lanka Programme.
A tree-planting programme to honour the President was organized following a proposal made to the Environment Ministry by Central Province Chief Minister Sarath Ekanayaka.
The Central Province alone has stepped up action to get 700,000 plants for the programme.
Over one million trees mean that they could contribute in some way to address issues pertaining to global warming, he said.
http://www.island.lk/index.php?page_cat=article-details&page=article-details&code_title=39086
No comments:
Post a Comment