Aizawl: Bethlehem branch Young Mizo Association and the Assam Rifles have been working hard since last five years to turn the eastern portion of the Assam Rifles battalion headquarters into a mini forest, to provide green lungs to the concrete jungle.
To mark the Mizo Peace Accord Day on Saturday, YMA volunteers from Bethlehem locality and Assam Rifles personnel planted 800 more tree saplings and cleared weeds around the trees already planted in the previous years.The place that lies in the heart of the city is matchingly called as Aizawl Chuap or Aizawl Lung for the much-needed oxygen it will provide to the city, congested with vehicles and concreted buildings.
Speaking at a simple ceremony at AR cinema hall before the tree planting, 26 Assam Rifles commandant Col Gaurav Chaturvedi stressed the need for planting tree to check the rapid global warming.He pointed out that today’s Aizawl is completely different from the Aizawl that he knew with an uncomfortable increase in temperature.
Besides the YMA volunteers and AR personnel, members of local council, MHIP (women organisation), MUP (senior citizens association) and inmates of Gan Sabra, a home for HIV-affected children, took part in the tree plantation programme.
More than 3000 trees have been planted in the area since last five years, in collaboration with the state’s environment & forests department which provided the saplings. (UNI)