Punjab govt to plant 75 lakh saplings to mark birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev

As part of the year-long celebrations to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Sikhism founder Guru Nanak Dev, the Punjab government will plant around 75 lakh is villages of the state.

The government has targeted to plant 550 saplings in every village.

Around 75 lakh saplings would be planted across the state, which had over 12,500 villages, Punjab Forest Minister Sadhu Singh Dharamsot said Thursday.

So far, 2,000 villages had been covered under the initiative, he said.

The minister informed that the state government had distributed over two crore saplings of various type free of cost among people of the state in the past one year under the Tandarust Punjab Mission.

The mission aims at taking care of the state's air and water quality besides ensuring safe food to ensure a good living environment for residents.

Dharamsot said the state government was fully committed to provide a clean and pollution-free environment to the people of the state.

"As part of this commitment, over 2 crore saplings of varied type have been distributed free of cost among people till date under various campaigns," he said in a statement.

The minister further added that saplings were being grown in over 200 nurseries and the drive to distribute free saplings to people under various schemes would continue in the next year too.