Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Feb 11: The 8th Steering Committee meeting of CAMPA was held under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary, Mohammad Iqbal Khandey, here today.
The Committee reviewed the physical and financial achievements for the Year 2013-14 ending January 2014 and Action Taken Report on decisions of previous Steering Committee meeting.
An area covering 3500 ha has been afforested ending January out of the target area of 5000 ha approved under the Annual Plan of Operation under CAMPA for the year 2013-14. Moreover, as many as 13 lakh plants were raised in Nurseries and fencing covering 13 lakh rft was completed, the meeting was informed.
The committee was informed that under the ICT Programme, Forest Department is working on demarcating forest boundaries across the State using GIS. Each boundary pillar will be Geo-referenced using GIS and it’s location demarcated besides geographical coordinates of all check posts, forest control rooms etc will be recorded. The capability will allow the department to develop a comprehensive data base on forest demarcation, CAMPA units protection network grid.
Besides this, the Forest Department is also working on digitization of forest demarcation files involving over 1 lakh pages. The pages are being scanned and will be made available in digital format once the exercise gets completed, the meeting was informed.
Chief Secretary asked the Forest Department to expedite the demarcation and digitization process besides focusing on capacity building of officers and upgrading training schools. He asked the Forest Department to enhance nursery plantation and work on pasture development in consultation with Agriculture Department and SKUAST besides bringing more and more areas under afforestation at a faster pace.
The meeting was attended by Principle Secretary, Planning and Development, B R Sharma, Secretary Forests, Mohammad Afzal Bhat, Principle Chief Conservator of Forests, Abay Kumar and other senior officers.
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