According to the officials concerned, local zone of the Department of Social Forestry (DSF) has implemented massive afforestation programmes in Rajshahi, Naogaon, Chapainawabganj and Natore districts at a cost of about Tk 39 lakh during the 2005-2006 fiscal.

On implementation of the programmes, the DSF has achieved tremendous successes in alleviating poverty and achieving self-reliance of the target groups, particularly the poor.

The people have planted adequate saplings of various trees, including wood, medicinal and fruit-bearing plants, at homesteads, roadsides, office premises, embankments, forest areas, religious institutions' premises and other places during the period.

The DSF has already distributed over Tk 3.34 lakh earned from the participatory tree plantation among over 105 poor and destitute beneficiary families under the commanding areas, sources said.

Under the programmes, strip garden on 360-kilometre area, agro-forestry on 11 hectares of land, woodlot on 45 hectares, char and pond garden on 12 hectares and cane and bamboo gardens on 65 hectares of land have been created.

Apart from this, some 2000 men and women were given necessary training on afforestation on different terms.

Though these beneficiaries were once very poor, their children are now going to educational institutions wearing better clothes. Besides, they are using sanitary latrines and living a life full of hopes, officials and beneficiaries said.

They said the tree plantation has already turned into a social movement in the areas as a result of the government's initiatives along with the state-level massive campaign for the last couple of years.

The ongoing process has been contributing a lot to maintaining ecological balance, retarding desertification and improving the environment in the area, especially in the dried Barind tract.