Himachal to restore degraded forests

Shimla, Feb 21 Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu said new initiatives for the restoration of degraded forest landscapes will be started under HP CAMPA in this fiscal.

"Instead of raising plantations in a sporadic manner, it should be done in a planned manner on barren hills and other large open patches in a phased manner in the entire state," he stated.

Sukhu was presiding over the first meeting of the governing body of the Himachal Pradesh State Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (HP CAMPA) here.

He said the plantation would be done keeping in mind the suitable climatic conditions and dedicated staff would be deployed as protectors to take care of the plantations in a responsible and accountable manner.

Reiterating that the government was working towards Vyavastha Parivartan, he said the campaign would be more focused and barren forest land would be covered to achieve the goal of the agreen state'.

The Forest Department has identified such areas in all 12 districts, covering more than 256 hectare of barren forest land along with a five-year maintenance period with an outlay of around Rs 8.83 crore.

Local representatives of the area would also be involved in the campaign, said Sukhu, adding land banks would be identified in degraded areas and utilised for compensatory afforestation schemes.

He also directed the authority for proper monitoring and Subdivisional Magistrate should be involved in it.

One Model Nursery would be developed in each forest division, he said, adding these 45 nurseries would have facilities like vermicompost units, polyhouses, green houses, sprinklers, root trainers and tissue culture labs, etc.

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