Govt to kick off mega plantation drive

The Economic Times , Monday, May 25, 2015
Correspondent : Vishwa Mohan
NEW DELHI: With Rs 38,000 crore set to be unlocked under a proposed law for increasing India's green cover over the next few years, the Centre is planning to launch a major plantation drive across the country on World Environment Day on June 5.

Environment minister Prakash Javadekar has written to all state governments, requesting them to earmark land for planting trees wherever possible.

"The drive will continue throughout the monsoon period (June-September) and eventually be turned into a round-the-year activity under a National Mission for Green India, which is aimed at increasing forest and tree cover of the country from existing 24.01% to 33% of the total geographical area," said an official.

India has 697,898 sq km (21.23% of the country's geographical area) of forests and 91,266 sq km (2.78% of the geographical area) of tree cover (outside forest area which includes urban green patches).

"Since some selected older and larger plants grow faster than younger saplings, the drive will see use of such bigger plants for planting exercise so that they may survive and grow better than the smaller ones. The choice of plants will, however, be area specific, considering water requirement and availability," said the official.

Officials in the environment ministry said the plantation drive this year would be different from such drives earlier as states, under the proposed Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015, have to give a detailed account of their plantation works including the expenses involved in the exercise and survival percentage of the plants.

Under the proposed legislation, which was introduced during the budget session and is expected to be passed in the monsoon session during July-August, states will have to submit their annual audit reports on green cover, specifying afforestation and conservation activities. There will be 'state monitoring authority' in each state as part of an institutional mechanism to keep an eye on such activities round-the-year and send reports to a 'national authority'.

The bill will unlock Rs 38,000 crore for disbursement among states for carrying out afforestation activities. This fund is lying unused in the ad-hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) fund, collected from different agencies for diverting forest land for non-forest use in the past over 10 years.

The plantation drive will supplement the work of the National Mission for Green India which is one of the eight missions under the National Action Plan on Climate Change for developing forests and their fringe areas in a holistic and sustainable manner.

Under the mission, the government has already approved perspective plans of six states -- Punjab, Uttarakhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh -- with a financial outlay of Rs 2,709 crore over the next six to ten year. The success of these plans will be monitored using Remote Sensing and Geographical Information System tools.

 
SOURCE : http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/the-good-earth/govt-to-kick-off-mega-plantation-drive/articleshow/47410365.cms?prtpage=1
 


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