Rajkot village to set green record this monsoon

Vijaysinh Parmar/TNN/June-21/RAJKOT: They won't be looking for greener pastures elsewhere. For, 6,000 villagers of Virnagar in Rajkot district have decided to create green cover in their own village. Led by an initiative by Rajkot District Co-operative Milk Producers Union Limited, known as Rajkot dairy, members of the village co-operative of Virnagar have taken it upon themselves to plant 1 lakh saplings this monsoon. Says Arjan Ramani, a villager and board member of Rajkot Dairy, "Though this is a part of an initiative taken up by district dairy union, villagers have decided to take this initiative to new heights and create a model green village." To execute their green goal, these men and women of Virnagar, located 47 km away from Rajkot in Jasdan taluka with farmers comprising majority of its population, have begun working round the clock. They have chalked a detailed road map to their success. According to Ramani, this will be the first-of-its-kind village in the state where plantation at such a grand scale will take place on private land. Plantation on private lands doesn't take place in villages as farmers fear for their crop life. Interestingly, to clear such misconceptions from minds of villagers, environmentalists, forest officers and even saints were roped in to create awareness in the last few weeks. "We had organised seven camps in the village specially for this purpose," says Ramani, explaining, "Farmers have a misconception that by planting trees on the border of their field, their crop yield is negatively affected. And so, during these camps they were made aware about the consequence of climate change and importance of the green cover. Villagers are now ready to plant saplings in the village." Besides their fields, farmers will plant saplings on the banks of lakes and ponds among other places. Twenty committees have been formed to distribute responsibility of the growth of each tree in different areas in village. "We have made a plan to distribute the number of saplings to be planted area-wise. According to our estimate, we have enough land to plant 1 lakh trees as private land is also available. In addition, we have an added advantage of 101 check dams in the village," says Ramani. "We have contacted government officials to provide sufficient saplings and also approached nature lovers and groups for financial aid," he adds.