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

Employees at the authority's regional and divisional offices for distribution and customer service, distribution centers/sub-centers, grid offices for transmission services, substation offices, and electricity generators for production services all planted trees in their office buildings and other appropriate locations.

More than one lakh fruits and other sorts of plants suitable for the climate and soil of their particular localities have been planted by NEA offices.

Every year on July 31st, the NEA plant trees through its offices across the country, sending the message that not only are trees cut down, but tree saplings are also safeguarded during the building of hydropower, transmission, and distribution projects.

The NEA's headquarters and workers operating in Kathmandu valley offices that do not have a location to plant trees have planted seedlings at the first and historic Pharping Hydropower Plant grounds.

The tree planting initiative was kicked off by Shakti Bahadur Basnet, Minister of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation and Chairman of the NEA Board of Directors, who planted pear seedlings in the center grounds.

Dinesh Kumar Ghimire, Secretary of the Ministry of Energy, Water Resources, and Irrigation and Member of the NEA Board of Directors, Kulman Ghising, Managing Director of the NEA, and the staff planted around 300 trees of diverse species. The majority of the seedlings were planted in Pharping, a pear pocket area.

Minister Basnet instructed in the program to pay special attention to the protection of planted trees, as it is the most important.

Minister Basnet stated that while environmental conservation and development are often presented as mutually contradictory, planting trees will send a positive message that the two concerns are not mutually exclusive.

Secretary Ghimire requested that the planted trees be cared for and protected rather than left alone. According to Ghising, trees will be planted in the catchment areas of hydropower plants beginning next year.