Chandigarh, Sep 14 - In a bid to make Punjab more green, the state forest department Monday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) to initiate a widespread tree plantation drive.

'During our tenure of last two-and-a-half year in Punjab, we have increased the area under tree cover to around six per cent from a meagre three-and-a-half per cent. Now our target is to increase it to up to 15 per cent by 2017,' state Forest and Wildlife Minister Tikshan Sud told reporters here Monday.

'Our association with SGPC will give impetus to our ongoing drive. Our department would provide lakhs of saplings to them at very subsidised price. We have set a target to plant nearly 1.5 crore (15 million) plants in Punjab in the next one year,' he said.