Bengaluru, Jun 27: Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday said that 15 lakh saplings will be planted across the city on the occasion of the 517th birth anniversary of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda, who is credited as the founder of Bengaluru.
The CM said this after offering floral tributes to Kempegowda’s statue here, and the plantation drive is ongoing.
“I greet the people on the occasion of Kempegowda Jayanti. We should think about what would have happened to Karnataka without Bengaluru. The whole world is looking at Bengaluru and Kempegowda’s ideals. He developed Bengaluru with the principle of universal humanism. All of us citizens should save and protect it,” Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said, “By growing 15 lakh saplings in Bengaluru city, we are making it a garden city once again”.
We will take land from the forest department, the forest lands surrounding Bengaluru, and convert them into parks like Cubbon Park in Bengaluru, aimed at increasing the green cover. The government has thought about it and has issued orders.”
As part of the ‘Green Bengaluru’ initiative, which is spearheaded by the Bengaluru Development Authority (BDA), a total of 15 lakh saplings of native species will be planted in the city on Saturday.
According to BDA, this initiative is a major effort to mitigate the Urban Heat Island (UHI) effect and restore Bengaluru’s ecological balance through a scientifically planned planting initiative.
Noting that 15 lakh saplings of native species will be planted across the city using the high-density planting technique that enables faster growth and the creation of self-sustaining urban oxygen parks, it said the initiative focuses on developing green spaces in nala and lake buffer zones and parks of BDA Layouts, transforming them into long-term ecological assets for the city.
Designed as a community-driven movement, this effort is bringing together citizens, NGOs, institutions and corporates in creating a greener future for Bengaluru, it added.
Nadaprabhu Hiriya Kempegowda, known as Kempegowda (1510-1569) was a 16th-century visionary chieftain of the Vijayanagara Empire has been credited with founding the city of Bengaluru in 1537.
He belonged to the agricultural Morasu Vokkaliga community and is widely revered across Karnataka as the architect of modern Bengaluru. (PTI)
