While air pollution is steadily rising across the country, the national capital has witnessed a 30 per cent improvement in its air quality, Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai said on Sunday.
Gopal Rai was speaking at the launch of the annual sapling plantation drive from the campus of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute here.
During the drive, which usually begins during the monsoon, saplings will be planted across the Delhi to increase the city's green cover.
"Air pollution in Delhi has reduced by 30 per cent while it has steadily increased in the rest of the country," the minister said at the launch of the drive.
Gopal Rai also launched an online portal to allow Delhi residents to book free saplings.
"The city government is close to delivering on its promise of planting two crore saplings in the national capital in five years," he said.
"Before the state elections, we promised to plant two crore saplings. We planted 32 lakh in 2020-21, 35 lakh in 2021-2022, 50 lakh in 2022-23 and the target for 2023-24 is 52 lakh," the minister added.
The plantation drive will culminate on August 20 with a closing event at the Chhatrasal Stadium here.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Featured Video Of The Day
Katrina Kaif Attends The Screening Of Vicky Kaushal's Bad Newz
Delhi's Maximum Temperature Settles At 38.4 Degrees, Rain Likely Tomorrow Commuters In Delhi Face Waterlogging, Traffic Issues Due To Rains Woman, 34, Electrocuted On Waterlogged Road During Heavy Rain In Delhi Bangladesh Imposes Curfew, Deploys Military As 105 Die In Protests "Jindal Group Executive Showed Porn, Groped Me On Flight": Woman To NDTV "Atmanirbharta" Cannot Be At Cost Of Nation's Defence: Air Force Vice Chief Meta Content Moderation Vendors Hit By Global Cyber Outage Conspiracy Theories Take Off After Global IT Crash UP Train Services Resume At Gonda Accident Site Track Latest News Live on NDTV.com and get news updates from India and around the world.