Mahbubnagar: The efforts of over 69,200 women of 5,880 self-help groups to grow greenery and increase forest cover in Mahbubnagar district found them a place in the International World Book of Records. They had earlier prepared 1,14,88,061 seed balls and scattered these in the forest and open places.
As a part of the Haritha Haram drive by the Telangana government, the Palamuru Zilla Mahila Samakhya (PZMS) had constituted SHGs from more than 284 villages, who prepared more than 1.14 crore seed balls and threw them across open areas surrounding the forest regions in the district. The London-based World Records recognized this as a novel feat towards increasing forest cover.
A brainchild of District Collector S. Venkat Rao and DRDA senior officials, the preparation of seed balls was taken up in a record nine days between June 28 and July 6. The seed balls, which comprise ten types of seeds each, were later scattered manually using drones in open forest lands by August 8.
Early this week, the Collector received the certificate from the World Records authorities in the name of PZMS. “We had taken up the task with the aim of improving forest density and protecting the environment. It is indeed a matter of pleasure that our work found its place in the Book of Records,” he said to the local media.