Trees across Tamil Nadu to be geo-tagged

CHENNAI: As Tamil Nadu is conducting country's first climate change summit, Supriya Sahu, Secretary of Environment, Forest and Climate Change department, said that the State will geo-tag all the trees that are being planted under Green Tamil Nadu Mission.

"Tamil Nadu is the first State in the country to form Green Climate Company. The not-for-profit company is formed as a special purpose vehicle. The vision of the company is to converge communities towards climate and to take grassroot level actions," Supriya Sahu said at the first day of 2-day conference being held in the city, on Thursday.

She added that climate budgeting has been done by the Green Climate Company for all the departments in the State. "All the trees planted under Green Tamil Nadu Mission will be geo-tagged," she added.

Deepak Srivastava, mission director of Green Tamil Nadu Mission and Tamil Nadu Wetlands Mission, pointed out that the target of the state is to achieve 33 per cent green cover. "Of the total 23.71 per cent present green cover in the state 20.31 per cent are forests and 3.4 per cent are tree cover," he said.

Deepak Bilgi, mission director of Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission, which is to be launched by Chief Minister MK Stalin on Friday, explained the steps that would be taken to address climate change including bio-fencing of coastal areas.

C Samayamoorthy, Secretary of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Department, listed out effects of climate change affecting agriculture such as erratic monsoon, floods and cyclones, drought and unseasonal rainfall. Due to late withdrawal of southwest monsoon, late onset and short window for northeast monsoon, crop planning is affected, he said.

Apart from senior officials from various departments, innovators, who invented enviromental friendly solutions also took part.

Apart from launching Tamil Nadu Climate Change Mission, Stalin will launch initiatives such as Climate Smart Villages, Green Schools and Green Temples on the second day of the summit.

It may be noted that the State government has fixed a target of planting 260 crore tree saplings in 10 years across the State to increase the green cover to 33 per cent. To raise required saplings, as many as 360 nurseries have been set up.