More than 2.8 cr saplings planted in 2 yrs
Bivek Mathur
JAMMU, Mar 23: Over 7, 265 hectares of the forest area has been damaged in 3,103 wildfire incidents in Jammu and Kashmir during the last 3 years until March 2025.
Against the massive loss to the green cover in the fire incidents, the Department of Forest, Ecology & Environment has planted or distributed over 2.80 crores of saplings and plants in the last two years.
This information was shared in the Legislative Assembly the other day by Minister incharge, Forest, Ecology & Environment, Javed Ahmed Rana, in response to an unstarred question of the BJP legislator from Chenani Assembly constituency, Balwant Singh Mankotia.
According to the Minister, in 1253 fire incidents reported in the year 2022-23, the UT lost a forest area of 2774.213 hectares, while as in the year 2023-24, the wildfires ravaged an area of 987.24 hectares in 607 incidents and in the current year until March 19, a forest area of 3503.70 hectares was damaged in 1243 forest fire incidents.
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Regarding the legislator’s another question about the details of developmental projects for which the forest clearance was sought and given by the Department, the Minister replied that prior to the introduction of the PARIVESH Portal, the forest clearance for 1690 cases was sanctioned under the J&K Forest (Conservation) Act 1497 applicable in the erstwhile State of J&K.
“After the introduction of PARIVESH Portal since August 2019, a total of 2743 proposals have been uploaded on PARIVESH portal as on March 20, 2025 for forest clearance by the various user agencies under the provisions of the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980,” he said.
“Of these proposals, stage-II approval has been accorded for 522 cases involving 636.337 Ha of forest land, Stage-I approval accorded for l15I cases involving 1453.118 hectares of the forest land, and approval for 1070 proposals are under process at different levels,” the Forest Minister said.
Replying another question related to the total saplings/plants planted/distributed in the last two years to check deforestation, Javed Ahmed Rana said that a total of 2, 80, 65, 774 saplings/plants have been planted or distributed in the last two years, with 1, 63, 55, 579 saplings/plants planted/distributed in the year 2023-24 and 1, 17, 10, 195 plants planted or distributed in the current year so far.
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