Pradipsinh Jadeja inaugurates the 71st Forest Festival

71st Forest Festival of Vadodara was inaugurated by Minister of State for Home Affairs Pradipsinh Jadeja by planting Borsali (a medicinal plant) in the premises of Swaminarayan Gurukul at Kandari village in Karjan taluka. It was organized by the Social Forestry Department of Vadodara. The event was attended by Gujarat Agro-Industry Chairman and MLA, Madhubhai Srivastava and senior officials including SK Chaturvedi of Forest Department and District Collector Shalini Agarwal as they also planted saplings.

The Minister handed over diesel boats to the Taluka Panchayat which is useful for rescue and relief operations during heavy rains and floods for the villages of Karjan taluka. Two boats have been arranged from the District Mineral Resources Fund at a cost of Rs. 10 lakhs.

Home Minister said that the Forest festival has made a huge contribution to the vision of the state government’s Green Gujarat, Clean Gujarat. PM Modi during his term as Gujarat’s Chief Minister had transformed the Forest Festival.

The laying of the foundation stone of Ram temple by planting a sacred sapling of Parijat by Narendra Modi shows the importance of trees in the socio-cultural tradition of India.

The Minister congratulated the Department of Social Forestry of Vadodara for its approach in promoting natural tree planting by scattering seed balls on the banks of Narmada, Mahisagar, Dhadhar, Vishwamitri in Vadodara district. He requested the people and organizations to plant more tree for the protection of the environment. 24 lakh saplings have been planted by the Forest Department in Vadodara.

The Minister and dignitaries honoured farmers who have done noble work of tree cultivation in their fields.