KALAIGAON, June 4 - In an effort to check climate change and restore forests for wild animals and birds along the India-Bhutan border, tea major Goodricke Group has taken up a massive plantation programme of creating a man-made forest in an area of 13.17 hectares near Orangajuli and Nonaipara tea gardens in Udalguri district.
AN Singh, Managing Director, Goodricke Group, attended a ceremony on the occasion as the chief guest on June 1. He formally inaugurated the plantation programme by planting a sapling at the site.
Speaking to attending children and students he requested all to take special care of a tree sapling as their own brother or sister. Assuring the schoolchildren and people all help, he said that the Goodricke Group would do its best to convert the barren plot of land to a new man-made forest to give shelter to wild animals and birds. The man-made forest will also have necessary water spots for the wild animals and birds, he said.
Referring specially to the man-elephant conflict in Udalguri district, he said that the two tea gardens under Goodricke in Udalguri � Nonaipara and Orangajuli, had not been suffering much by wild elephants as they had been maintaining a six-km-long elephant corridor from the Bhutan border to the plains of Assam through these two tea gardens. The herds of wild elephant could move through these corridors undisturbed, he said.
Talat Ahmed, senior manager, Orangajuli TE, also planted a sapling on the occasion. Other distinguished guests present were welfare officers Atanu Sil and Gokul Kumar. More than hundred schoolchildren from Orangajuli LP School took part in the plantation programme under the guidance of Bikram Pradhan and Susmita Tanti.
