KOLHAPUR: The social forestry department, as part of its annual plantation drive, will be planting as many as 40,000 saplings on the 90 acre land in the Shenda Park area of the city.The land belongs to Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri.Divisional forest officer of social forestry department Dipak Khade said, "We were searching land for plantation of saplings in the district and we spotted the 90 acre land near the Shenda Park that has been lying vacant. We spoke with the university officials who agreed for the plantation drive and granted us permission to plant the saplings on the land."He further said, "We started the work two weeks ago and have almost completed the work of digging pits in the area for plantation."He added, "We have dug a total of 39,996 pits with an average of 1,111 pits per hectare. The basic work is completed and now we are waiting for monsoon to begin so that we can start the plantation work."Khade also said that they have enough saplings for the entire district."At Shenda Park, we will be planting trees like mango, tamarind, neem and other local varieties that will grow and survive for years. As per the plan, we will be spending Rs 446 per tree for three years to ensure that they remain alive and grow. A total of Rs 2 crore will be spent on these saplings for the first three years to ensure their growth and survival," he said.Talking about how it is going to benefit the city, Khade said, "This will help in increasing the green cover in the city. It will increase the oxygen level in the city and residents will get to breath fresh air."This year, the state government has set a target of planting a total of 13 crore saplings across the state."The target given to our department in Kolhapur district is to plant 2 lakh saplings. By now, we have surpassed the target and are planning to plant 5 lakh samplings. We have identified the place and will start plantation after the monsoon ," said Khade.

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