On the occasion of its 38th anniversary, Nepal Electricity Authority (NEA) planted trees on Monday through its offices across the country.

Employees working in the regional and divisional offices under the distribution and customer service of the authority, distribution centers/sub-centres, grid offices under the transmission service, substation offices, and electricity generators under the production service planted trees in their office premises and other suitable places.

The offices planted more than 100,000 fruits and other types of plants suitable for the climate and soil of their respective areas.

Every year on 31 July, NEA will plant trees through its offices across the country to convey the message that trees are not only cut down but also tree saplings are protected during the construction of hydropower, transmission and distribution projects.

The staff working in the head office of the Authority and the offices within the Kathmandu Valley, where there is no place to plant trees, have planted saplings in the first and historical Pharping hydropower plant premises of Nepal. NEA will plant trees every year on 15 July through its offices across the country to convey the message that conservation is also done.

Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Minister of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and Chairman of the Board of Directors of NEA, started the tree planting work by planting pear saplings in the center premises.

More than 300 saplings of various species were planted by Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources and Irrigation and Member of the Board of Directors of NEA, Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of NEA and the staff. Most of the seedlings have been planted where pears as Pharping is pocket area of pears.

In the program, Minister Basnet instructed to pay special attention to the protection of planted trees as it is the most important. Mentioning that environmental protection and development are portrayed as opposites of each other, Minister Basnet said that planting trees will send a positive message that the two issues are not mutually exclusive.

Managing Secretary Ghimire asked to take care and protect the planted trees without leaving them alone. Managing Director Ghising said that trees will be planted in the catchment areas of hydropower projects from next year.