LAHORE, Nov 22: Over 10 million saplings will be planted during the next spring tree plantation campaign in the Punjab.

This was stated during a meeting which was presided over by Chief Secretary Hafeez Akhtar Randhawa here on Saturday.

The meeting was informed that the forest department was regularly holding festivals at district level to create awareness among people about the importance of the tree plantation.

Afforestation was also under way over 12,000 acres in Murree and Kotli Sattian.

As many as 25 per cent of shisham trees had been badly affected by a disease and the forest department had started a project to identity the causes and their treatment at a cost of Rs18 million.

The chief secretary directed the forest department to create awareness about the precautionary measures so that the healthy shisham trees could be protected.

The meeting was attended by secretaries of various departments.