Thar Foundation to donate 100k saplings to SFD under Thar Million Tree Program

KARACHI:  In a major push for increasing green cover, Thar Foundation – the CSR front for Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company (SECMC) and Engro Powergen Thar Limited (EPTL) – has announced a collaboration with the Sindh Forest Department for plantation of 100,000 saplings across the province.

In this connection, a memorandum of understanding was signed between Thar Foundation and Sindh Forest Department (SFD). Under the terms of agreement, Thar Foundation together with SECMC will provide 100,000 plants to the department to increase greening factor in Sindh. The collaboration has been done under the larger Thar Million Tree Program initiative of the foundation which plans to plant one million trees in Thar by end of 2019. With the current agreement, the total count of trees stands over 700,000.

The agreement was signed by Syed Murtaza Azhar Rizvi, Director Site Operations of Sindh Engro Coal Mining Company and Riaz Wagan, Chief Conservator, from Sindh Forest Department.

As per collaboration between SECMC and Sindh Forest, SECMC will provide 100,000 different types of indigenous plants to SFD which will then develop a multi-scale plan for 100,000 saplings' plantation across the Sindh province. The SFD will also be responsible for continuous monitoring and supervision of these plants across the province.

Speaking on the occasion, Syed Murtaza Azhar Rizvi of SECMC said his company was vigorously working for making clean and green environment in district Tharparkar.

“We attach great importance to health, safety and environment (HSE) initiatives. Keeping in view this approach, now we have decided to expand horizon of such activities from Thar, our main area of operation, to entire province.”

“The Thar Million Tree Program, which is our flagship environmental stewardship program targeted at a vision of a greener, more prosperous Thar,” he said.

Earlier SECMC established Sindh's largest private sector nursery spread over 80 acres of land and having a capacity to nurture 0.5 million saplings at a time. The nursery has contributed saplings of different local species like Sarhain, Moringa, Bairi, Babur, Neem and Kandi. The program is aimed at contributing towards carbon footprint reduction and promoting a green and healthy environment in Tharparkar.