It was envisaged that 40 crores tree saplings would be planted by 2020 at the cost of Rs 1900 crore under the scheme. It decided to motivate farmers for agro-forestry to achieve the target of 15 per cent forest cover in the state. What is Punjab’s forest cover requirement? According to National Forest Policy, there should be 33 per cent forest cover in India as a whole. Around 59 lakh saplings were planted by the department and around 35 lakh distributed to public in 2017-18.

Source: Indian Express July 20, 2019 21:45 UTC