Bhairahawa, June 15

Preparations are under way to plant more tree saplings along the Bhairahawa-Lumbini-Taulihawa Postal road section.

Tree saplings will be planted along the road section to compensate the loss of trees during expansion of the road.

Lumbini Development Fund, Rupandehi Division Forest Office and Bhairahawa-Lumbini Taulihawa Road Expansion Project had reached agreement to plant 47,700 saplings along the road section.

Chief Forest Officer at Division Forest Office, Rupandehi Indra Bahadur Pachhai said as many as 46,500 saplings would be planted as per Lumbini Development Master Plan and 1,182 tree saplings would be planted on either side of the road.

As many as 1,908 trees were cut down during expansion of the road along the Bhairahawa-Taulihawa road stretch. Around 500 trees were cut down in Kapilvastu.

As per the provision in Forest Act, two tree saplings have to be planted for each tree felled for expansion of electricity services, and 25 times more tree saplings have to be planted if the trees are cut down to construct a road. As required by the Act, total 47,700 tree saplings have to be planted in Rupandehi.

Project Chief Pradip Raj Shakya said a decision regarding the purchase of saplings will be taken within a week. He claimed that the tree saplings would be planted within a year.