Kasaragod to become bamboo capital of South India

KASARAGOD: In a major push to increase green lands in Kasaragod, the district administration has planned to plant three lakh bamboo saplings and turn it into the bamboo capital of South India.

A press release by the town administration said, in first phase of the project, three lakh bamboo plants would be planted in the panchayats under Kasaragod and Manjeswaram blocks.

E Chandrashekharan, Revenue Minister, will be inaugurating the project at Puthige gram panchayat on July 13.

D Sajitha Babu, District Collector of Kasaragod, said that a team of central delegation will visit the district to see the initiation of first of its kind project. Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has also offered their assistance in conducting a study about the impact of such large scale plantation.

D Babu said that the project will boost the groundwater recharge in the district. Though the district has 12 rivers, but the groundwater is decreasing because a large area in the district remained unsown. The bamboo plantation project is sorted to be a way of converting unsown land into patches of Greenfields that would prevent rainwater run-off and recharge of groundwater.

Pits for planting bamboo saplings would be planted maintained for three months by the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme beneficiaries.