LEAF YEAR: Author Shobhaa Dé helps a child plant a sapling. A Telegraph picture

A special first-aid van will hit the streets in the first week of March to look after trees and saplings in the boulevards and parks of the city and Salt Lake.

The programme is being taken up as part of the Calcutta Greening project of the state forest department.

“The van will carry manure, soil, saplings, pesticides and water. In short, the van will have everything you need for the first aid of a sapling or a tree,” said Somnath Mukherjee, deputy conservator of forests (urban forestry).

The programme will cover around 50 prominent boulevards across the city and Salt Lake and parks where the forest department had sown saplings last year.

The green drive will cost around Rs 25,000 a month and will continue for six months, till the advent of the monsoon.

In the first phase of the drive, a van will do the rounds of Esplanade and pockets of south Calcutta. In the second phase, another van will deployed for Salt Lake and north Calcutta.

“The second phase will start 15 days after the launch of the first,” said Mukherjee. Both vans will run six days a week.

A beat officer and two Group-D employees will monitor the boulevards. Plans are also afoot to involve local clubs and NGOs for the upkeep.

“We plant saplings every year but they get damaged due to poor maintenance. We hope the situation will improve once the vans are introduced,” Mukherjee said.