Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, July 2: To take the first-hand appraisal of the Forest Department and its allied wings, Advisor to Governor, K Vijay Kumar today reviewed functioning of Forest Department and the performance made for increasing the green wealth in the State. He also reviewed the activities undertaken by the Social Forestry Department.
Commissioner Secretary, Forest Department Saurabh Bhagat, PCCF (Territorial), Manoj Panth, Chief Wild Warden, Ravi Kumar, Managing Director SFC, Suresh Chugh, CCF Kashmir S F A Gillani, HoDs of allied departments besides other senior officers of the department attended the meeting.
A detailed power point presentation was made by Commissioner Secretary including physical, financial achievements of the department and the initiatives undertaken to further increase the coverage of State land under forests.
Commissioner Secretary Saurabh Bhagat informed the Advisor that to save the forest land from the encroachment, new kind of land demarcation is being done by installing boundary pillars. He also gave the details of seizure of forests produce made by the enforcement wing for the last few years.
He was also informed about the steps taken to evict the encroached forest land, installation of boundary pillars for the demarcation of forest areas and drive to destroy Canabis plants wherever identified by the Forest and other related agencies including inputs from Narcotics Department.
Regarding the priority and thrust areas of the department, Commissioner Secretary informed the Advisor about the Jambu Zoo and Pahalgam Zoo projects. Financial and physical status of these projects was discussed in the meeting with the stress to monitor the pace of the works.
Advisor asked for involving youth by the way of community interface for overall improvement in adding more trees in the forest land of the state besides coordinated efforts in inter departments for better results.
Meanwhile, Advisor asked the Culture Department to adopt the latest scientific techniques to preserve the ancient/old historical records and manuscripts for the reference of future generation. He also stressed for making out efforts for coming up with digital libraries besides promoting the book reading culture in the State.
The Advisor made these observations while addressing the senior officers of Culture Department during a meeting convened to review its functioning and the activities being carried out by the department.
Commissioner Secretary Culture Department Mohammad Saleem Shishgar, Director Archives, Archaeology & Museums Munir-ul-Islam, Director Libraries Masrat-ul-Islam, Director Finance, Deputy Secretary and other concerned officers of the department.
Commissioner Secretary made a detailed presentation about the working of Directorate of Archives, Archaeology & Museums, Directorate of Libraries and Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, Academy of Art, Culture and Languages.
Director Archives, Archaeology & Museums apprised the Advisor about the primary mandate which is to preserve the tangible cultural heritage of the State – Archaeological monuments, sites, manuscripts, historical records, rare books and latest reference books, paintings, art object, textiles, gold & silver coins, etc.
The Advisor enquired about the historical records/antiques which is available with the department and the techniques of preserving the same. Keeping in mind the importance of these ancient and historical records, the
Advisor asked for adopting some latest scientific techniques of preservation so that it remains with us for years to come.
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