As part of the Earth Day celebrations, Eco-Watch conducted, under their Urban Forestry Project, the planting of a variety of native species at the bio-diversity park in Hoskote on Friday, along with the employees of Intel India. Suresh Heblikar noted how the world is losing about 9 million hectares of forest land every year and the Indian subcontinent is losing its valuable forests and water resources faster than it can be regenerated. Thus, the country is losing its biological diversity and also running up a water deficit. There is an urgent need to improve the green cover on a war footing, he said. The Earth Day celebrations saw a heightened enthusiasm among the Intel employees as they involved in a day-long programme of tree-planting. This one-day programme was flagged off with Suresh Heblikar, Chairman, Eco-Watch, addressing the gathering and Praveen Vishkantaiah, President, Intel India, motivating the group to support the cause of environmental restoration. The event saw about 120 volunteers from Intel, smartly dressed in blue as they enthusiastically participated in the identification, tagging and planting a large number of saplings, belonging to 20 different species. The saplings planted included varieties such as Eugenia Jambolana, Neem, Caribbean Mahogany, Pongamia and Silver Oak.