
Superintendent of Police V. Harshavardhan Raju launched a tree plantation drive called Mission Harithandra at the District Police Office in Ongole on a Wednesday, planting saplings himself and urging the public to…
Superintendent of Police V. Harshavardhan Raju launched a tree plantation drive called Mission Harithandra at the District Police Office in Ongole on a Wednesday, planting saplings himself and urging the public to go further than planting by taking ownership of protecting them through their early growth, The Hindu reported. “Growing trees gives life to fellow creatures and strengthens the biodiversity around us,” Raju said, adding that the earth would be “cleaner and greener with so many trees in our vicinity.” He separately cautioned residents to cut back on automobile fuel use by avoiding unnecessary travel and to give up single-use plastic altogether. Additional Superintendents N. Yugandhar Babu and Ch. Venkateswarlu, along with Deputy Superintendents R. Srinivasa Rao and K. Srinivasa Rao, attended the event. The report says several such drives were taken up in the past, and gives no planting target or survival figures.

Raju's appeal goes beyond the planting itself: he asked the public to take ownership of safeguarding the saplings up to a certain stage and to take responsibility for their growth in the initial stages. The report gives no figures for how many saplings were planted this time, or for what became of the trees put in during the earlier drives it mentions, so there is no way from this account alone to judge whether the appeal is being heeded. How many of the saplings planted at the District Police Office are still standing is the figure Mission Harithandra can be measured by.
Source: www.thehindu.com
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