Bhubaneswar, July 2: Van Mahotsav took off to a sacred start with chief minister Naveen Patnaik planting a phasi sapling, the timber of which is used to built the chariots of the divine Trinity during rath yatra.

Though Naveen spoke of the need to revive greenery, state officials quoted statistics to show that the city was on a green march.

A senior forest official claimed 90 to 93 per cent survival rates for saplings in the city as Naveen launched the programme on the IRC Village Government High School premises here today.

Naveen said that from the state’s 2,000 nurseries, the government had developed 7.5 crore saplings this year. While 4.5 crore saplings will be utilised through various institutional afforestation events, three crore saplings will be distributed among the public.

The chief minister stressed on the practice of managing forests involving local people. He asked to revive the forest patches by creating greenery in the denuded hills and emphasised on bamboo cultivation, plantation of medicinal plants and mangrove forests in the coastal areas.

Principal chief conservator of forests Priyanath Padhi said: “The forest department has started plantation audit. We have achieved an excellent result for the city except a patch in the Bharatpur reserve forest, where elephants had destroyed a large plantation patch.”

Padhi said that once the audit was over, the results would be made public for better awareness on the green drive.

Forests and environment minister Bijayshree Routray said: “According to the department’s inputs, nearly 60 per cent planted saplings are surviving after the programmes are over at the state-level.”

Routray said the forest department would take care of the saplings for seven years.

A forest official said that in an average, the city experienced plantation programmes involving around three lakh saplings each year. Besides the forests and environment department, other government and private agencies, including corporate houses, are also involved in the programme.

Moreover, two Van Samrakshan Samitis — Pajimaha from Kandhamal district and Pokatunga-Deurisahi from Angul district — were awarded with the first state-level Biju Patnaik award for their afforestation initiatives. The samitis were awarded Rs 1 lakh each to carry out afforestation and nature conservation.