LUCKNOW, July 2 -- Kukrail, the lungs of the city, now also has an open gym and a yoga point. The facilities were inaugurated on Tuesday, when the week-long Van Mahotsav began with a plantation drive at Triveni Van in the Kukrail forest area. Forest minister Arun K Saxena, head of forest force Sunil Chaudhary, principal secretary (forest) Anil Kumar, plantation drive nodal officer Deepak Kumar, Lucknow zoo dire- ctor Aditi Sharma and other senior officials of the forest department planted saplings. Triveni van will have a majority of peepal, bargad and neem trees. Also, a scheme wherein parents of newborns are gifted plant saplings was launched. The event was held at Avantibai (women's) hospital. Chief forest conservator Renu Singh and divisional forest officer Sitanshu Pandey gifted teak saplings to new parents. The state, meanwhile, has planned the plantation of 35 crore saplings this year. Advance soil work on 72,912 hectares of land, on which 8,439 plantation sites have been marked, has been completed. The department has gathered 52.33 crore saplings at its district and divisional offices after contributions from several departments. As many as 18.60 crore are of teak and sheesham trees, 10.79 crore of fruit trees, 5.75 crore of trees with medicinal properties such as drumstick and neem, 5.62 crore of ornamental plants like amaltas and siris, and 29 lakh of banyan and peepal trees....