Rad­hi­ca Sookraj

Con­ser­va­tor of Forests An­tho­ny Ram­nar­ine has called on the pri­vate sec­tor to part­ner with the Forestry Di­vi­sion to con­serve the en­vi­ron­ment. His com­ments came as the Min­istry of Hous­ing and the En­vi­ron­ment and the Forestry Di­vi­sion plant­ed trees at the San Fer­nan­do Hill yes­ter­day.

A to­tal of 14 trees were plant­ed. Stu­dents from ten schools, in­clud­ing Bar­rack­pore West, Grant Memo­r­i­al Pres­by­ter­ian, Mon Re­pos RC, Pre­sen­ta­tion Col­lege, Hap­py Ven­ture Pri­ma­ry, Vista­bel­la Pres­by­ter­ian, Broth­ers Road Pres­by­ter­ian, Pi­paro Pres­by­ter­ian and Av­o­cat Vedic School, took part.

De­liv­er­ing the fea­ture ad­dress, Ram­nar­ine said every cit­i­zen de­pend­ed on the en­vi­ron­ment for sur­vival. "We have an im­por­tant role to play in con­serv­ing the en­vi­ron­ment. It is very im­por­tant that we main­tain eco­log­i­cal bal­ance," Ram­nar­ine said. He said: "We de­pend on na­ture for sur­vival and wel­fare. The plants give us oxy­gen. We de­pend on our phys­i­cal en­vi­ron­ment for recre­ation, food and med­i­cine."

Dev Go­sine, a mem­ber of the San Fer­nan­do Hill Com­mit­tee, al­so added a call for more trees to be plant­ed. He said young peo­ple must part­ner with oth­ers to main­tain the en­vi­ron­ment.