The government has programmed to facilitate planting of 10 lakh saplings in the State on a single day on July 15 by involving all sections of people and build a massive social movement to take on the daunting challenge of fighting global warming by reducing carbon-dioxide emissions.

“We have before us the great challenge of increasing the State's forest cover to an ideal level of 33 per cent of the State's geographical area of 275 lakh hectares as against only about 22 per cent now”, a senior Forest Department official told The Hindu.

Thick forests accounted for only 12 per cent now even in the Nagarjunsagar Tiger sanctuary. Ahead of a Consultative Committee meeting of Green India Mission to be organised by the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests in Visakhapatnam next month, the IFS officer said: “We are working on ways to get maximum funds from the Centre under the Rs. 44,000 crore programme to halt degradation of forests through sustainable ecosystem management''.

The meeting would discuss ways to implement the nationwide mission to absorb 43 million tonnes of greenhouse gases every year in keeping with its commitment made at the Copenhagen summit to bring down greenhouse gas emissions by 20 to 25 per cent by 2020, said C. S. Rama Lakshmi, Director General of the Andhra Pradesh Forest Academy and the Centre for Forest and Natural Resources Management. “Steps will be taken to preserve the rich flora and fauna in the forests by taking up massive afforestation and eco-restoration programmes by involving the local communities.”

Dovetailing the centrally-sponsored Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MG-NREGS), the State government had already taken up social forestry projects at a cost of over Rs. 60 to Rs. 70 crore.

The State would urge the Centre to allocate Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 crore this year to promote plantations, she added.