By Bijay Kumar Sah
Dhalkebar, Oct. 6: Twenty-five thousand saplings of neem plant (Azadirachta indica), have been planted in Dhanusha. Neem saplings have been planted in different areas of the district under the ‘multi-purpose plant neem tree’ planting campaign.

General Secretary of the Province-2 Forest Technical Society and environmentalist Suresh Sharma and chairman of Mithila Wildlife Trust Dhanusha Devnarayan Mandal have jointly launched the campaign.
The campaigners have been working to increase the use of the plant by spreading knowledge about its benefits.
Environmentalist Sharma said that more than 25,000 saplings of neem have been planted in the sidewalk of the Dhalkebar-Janakpur road section, community forests, private forests and open fields in an effort to balance the ecology of the area.

Found in front of every house and on every street, neem trees used to be ubiquitous in the Terai until recently. But they have been gradually disappearing from the area. “We have launched a campaign to make the area like before,” Sharma said.
The saplings were provided by the Dhanusha Division Forest Office, which assisted the campaigners by producing neem saplings in a nursery of its premises.

In the Terai, it was customary for many people to brush their teeth by chewing neem. But that has been gradually replaced with expensive brush and toothpaste.
Although the samplings have been planted under the campaign, the responsibility of raising them has been given to the office.

Sunil Kumar Karna, an official at the office, said that the forest office has been working to raise the planted samplings using an environment-friendly vaccine made from bamboo, giving priority to local resources.