Rural greening programme (RGP) as a community development programme is being carried out since the year 2011 in Sivaganga and Viluppuram districts, Tamil Nadu involving farming communities aiming to increase the green cover facilitating CO2 mitigation, improve quality of soil and create livelihood for the rural poor. More than one lakh economically important and high value timber trees viz., teak, kumil, mallaivembu, perumaram, vengai, poovarasu, neem, pungai, batham, arasu & vilvam and fruit trees have been planted in the less fertile lands covering 500 acres across 220 villages benefitting nearly 400 farmers. Regular monitoring of the fields and interactions with farmers providing them advisory services to maintain the trees are being done so that the trees attain optimum growth and fetch them good income when matured. The programme not only showcased the sustainable tree plantation through participatory approa ch of the beneficiaries but also proved beneficial to the environmental namely, carbon sequestration through photosynthesis leading to reduced temperature in the local areas and restoration of soil health.
