Saplings planted on the roadside of Argora bypass road by the forest department. Picture by Hardeep Singh Ranchi, Aug. 13: With an aim to revive the good old pleasant days in the state capital, the forest department has started tree plantation in the town this monsoon. And the noble task took off with planting of saplings along Birsa Munda Raj Marg, also known as Harmu bypass road. "We have planted 400 saplings on the roadside of Birsa Munda Raj Marg and Birsa Chowk to the state secretariat,' said Kali Kinker, divisional forest officer, social forestry, Ranchi. The forest department has a plan to plant as many as 5,000 trees along almost all the important roads of the capital to compensate the dead or felled trees over the past couple of years on the pretext of development and widening of streets. The other objective of planting trees is maintaining the general climatic condition of the city. Kinker said the forest department wants to make the city green with minimum funds. "We, therefore, have decided to recycle the used fences to protect the trees,' he said. So, the fences around the grown up trees in the capital are being uprooted and reused in protecting the new saplings being planted, said the forest department officials. Kinker also plans to paint the boundary-fences with message "plant trees and save life'. But as the monsoon now is strong, the officials are waiting for the right moment after the season to start the slogan-writing task. Though the forest department had initially planned to plant all the 5,000 saplings on the side of the roads this rainy season itself, it could plant only limited numbers. "The task may stretch up to next year as uprooting the old boundary-fences and re-using them for the fresh saplings is proving arduous,' said J.B. Jauher, the additional principal chief conservator of forest, development. As per plan, trees would be planted along roads from Argora Chowk to Piska More, Raj Bhavan to Booty More, Booty More to Kantatoli Chowk, Kantatoli Chowk to Ciruclar Road, Kantatoli Chowk to Birsa Chowk, Kantatoli Chowk to Namkom, Birsa Chowk to Singhmore and Raj Bhavan to Kanke among others. Kinker said the saplings planted include gulmohar, champa and jackfruit. "In some places, where the overhead electricity wire runs through, we will be planting trees of smaller varieties like tachoma,' he added. The forest department plans to spend Rs 13 lakh in the task of turning the city once again.