Noida, Aug 15 (PTI) Over 13.50 lakh saplings have been planted across Noida and Greater Noida on July 22 and August 15 as part of a mass afforestation drive initiated by the Uttar Pradesh government this year, the district administration said on Tuesday.

The Gautam Buddh Nagar district has exceeded its allotted target by 144.56 per cent, the administration said in a statement after the second leg of plantation drive on Tuesday led by District Magistrate Manish Kumar Verma.

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Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had called for major plantation drives across Uttar Pradesh, setting a target of 35 crore plantations across the state – 30 crore on July 22 and 5 crore on August 15, it stated.

"As part of the campaign, Gautam Buddh Nagar was allotted a target of 9.34 lakh plantations," Divisional Forest Officer Pramod Kumar Srivastava was quoted as saying in the statement.

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He said plantation drives were organised at various places by the public representatives, various government departments, industrial units, schools, colleges, civil societies, RWAs, NGOs and villagers in Gautam Buddh Nagar.

"Getting wide public participation and implementing it as a mass movement, a total of 1.49 lakh saplings were planted by the Forest Department on July 22 and August 15, while 12.02 lakh saplings were planted by other departments. A total of 13.51 lakh saplings have been planted at 1093 sites, which is 144.56 per cent of the allotted target,” the DFO said.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)