A seasoned gardener’s perspective on the green belt plantation drive scam
Money was allocated. Green belt was cleared. Pretty sure there was money allocated for fencing, but these people used just cement pillars and barbed wire which is flimsy and falls off after one storm. Let’s also not forget that the govt procures materials at the cheapest rates. Most of the old sectors already have fencing, it was the turn of the new sectors to get them. But what did they do? Apart from this, I want to talk about the plants that they’ve planted . I asked the plantation guys what trees they were planting and they kept saying “Gulmohar”. I was quite happy that such a beautiful shade giving tree would be planted, it would make the whole area look extraordinary beautiful. But when it actually came to the plantation, I noticed that they were planting an invasive , fast growing, wide spreading species of tree. I asked them what variety of gulmohar it was and they said one which doesn’t flower and only has leaves. That had me cracking up coz there’s no such variety of gulmohar which doesn’t flower. So what did they plant? Subabul. It’s a highly invasive tree so I can assure you guys that they got it for free. It is not only invasive but it also destroys the landhold of native trees. While it is good for reforestation and erosion control, I don’t know what its utility is in a place like Faridabad. And the best part? It’s not even a shade giving tree. Doesn’t provide a good enough canopy for shade. They could have planted good trees, they anyway get them for free from govt nurseries, they would have planted actual Gulmohar if they wanted to. But they didn’t. So I’ve decided to pull out all the trees they’ve planted in front of my house and replace them with actual flowering Gulmohar and fruit trees which people can enjoy :)