Massive plantation drive eyeing Guiness entry starts in Assam

Guwahati, Jul 10 (UNI) With a view to making an entry into the Guiness Book of World Records, a massive plantation drive was today launched at Abhyapuri in Assam.

The drive was the brainchild of the Bongaigaon District administration.

The task involved planting three lakh saplings within 24 hours on an area of 31.5 hectares, and 300 volunteers had started the activity at 1500 hrs, SDO (Civil) Manibbhan Aiyar informed newspersons.

''We have already approached the Guiness authorities and they have given us the green signal. In this regard, they have appointed a panel of neutral judges comprising senior bureaucrats, academicians, NGOs as well as environmentalists,'' Mr Aiyar said.

The initiative, conceived by Mr Aiyar, was under the Centre's NREGA scheme, which guarants 100 days of employment to the jobless in a year.

Exactly at the stroke of 1500 hrs, the volunteers fanned out to surround the areas near Abhyapur, about 178 kms from here, and started planting the saplings belonging to 22 species, '' Mr Aiyar said.

Currently, the Nagapattnam district of Tamil Nadu holds the record of massive plantation involving 2.5 lakh saplings as a part of Tsunami relief operation.

''Since I am from Tamil Nadu, I want to beat that record. In this way, we can contribute to nature and simultaneously provide jobs to the jobless, '' the SDO said.

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