*Special central assistance sought to protect green gold
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 11: Concerned over continuous threat to the green gold wealth of the State, the Government has decided to fence the forest areas vulnerable to the encroachments and illegal felling of trees in the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir and issued directions to all the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) to furnish forest compartment-wise lists to the Administrative Secretary of the Department of Forest and Ecology within a period of 10 days along with the requirement of funds for the task.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that it has been noticed that encroachments of the forests and illegal felling of trees are taking place mainly because no serious thought was ever paid towards ensuring complete fencing of the forests particularly those which are vulnerable to these illegal activities.
“On one side attempts are repeatedly being made to encroach upon the forests, on the other side ensuring complete fencing of vulnerable forests remained a non-issue for the successive Governments, which can be gauged from the fact that every year meager funds are kept at the disposal of the Forest Department for this imperative exercise”, sources said.
Quoting an example, sources said that as against the requirement of Rs 3 crore to Rs 4 crore for fencing of forests in one Forest Division only funds to the tune of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh are being released during the past several years. In some of the Forest Divisions even this much of amount is not kept at the disposal of the concerned authorities for this exercise.
“Not only for fencing, even inadequate funds are released for another vital exercise—creation of fire safety lines and purchase of fire fighting equipments despite the fact that during every summer huge chunk of forests fall prey to the devastating fire”, sources informed, adding “though much is talked about preservation of forests and checking encroachments besides illegal felling of trees adequate funds were never earmarked for protecting the forests by way of fencing particularly the vulnerable ones”.
Taking all these aspects in mind, the Minister for Forests, Ch Lal Singh has directed all the Divisional Forest Officers (DFOs) to identify the compartment wise vulnerable forests and furnish the list of the same to the Administrative Secretary within a period of not more than 10 days.
“The DFOs will also furnish the requirement of funds for fencing the vulnerable forests”, sources said, adding “thereafter the Finance Minister will be approached for enhancing the allocation for the department during the Budget for the current financial year so that required focus is laid on the fencing of forests”.
“Not only on this, the Forest Minister would also lay required thrust on securing enhanced allocation for other components like plantation, soil conservation, fire safety lines etc”, sources said, adding “even the Union Government will also be approached for special financial assistance to effectively protect the green cover of the State”.
When contacted, Minister for Forests, Ch Lal Singh confirmed that directions have been issued for furnishing the details of vulnerable forests so that effective measures are taken vis-à-vis fencing. “During the past many years, no serious thought has been paid towards this vital aspect. At least vulnerable forests are required to be fenced so that encroachers are prevented from spreading their tentacles”, he added.
In response to a question, the Minister said that his recent meetings with the concerned Union Ministers were aimed at seeking special financial assistance for the protection of green gold of Jammu and Kashmir. “I am going to meet some more Ministers of the Union Government with this objective”, he added.
When asked about anti-encroachment drive, he said, “there are standing instructions to the officials of the Forest Department to go whole hog against the encroachers and all out efforts will be made to secure the forest wealth”.
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