Mother Nature has bestowed Himachal Pradesh with immense beauty

Forest Conservation with Sustainable Development

 

Vijyender Sharma

SHIMLA---The Mother Nature has bestowed Himachal Pradesh with immense beauty and valuable forest wealth which is helping in conserving precious environment on one hand and in generating subsistence employment on the other. The State Government is committed for the preservation of its forest wealth, which is estimated at over Rs. 1 lac crore per annum and many programmes are being implemented for increasing the forest cover of the state along with making Himachal Herbal State of the country.

Out of a total geographical area of 55,673 square kilometres, 37,033 square KM area is classified as forests in the state. This forest wealth is not only important for ecological conservation but also for sustainable development of the country and the state. The present State Government is giving added priority to this sector and emphasis is being laid on peoples' participation in environment and forest conservation. State Government has notified the policy of 'Payment of Ecological Services' to encourage peoples' participation and interest of the people towards conservation and a budget allocation of Rs. 437 crore has been made for forest department for financial year 2014-15.

The State Government would eradicate Lantana grass from  10,000 hectare of forest land in the year 2014-15 and area specific approach would be adopted to ensure that once an area is cleared off from Lantana, the same would be maintained as Lantana free zone.

With its serene environment and climatic conditions, Himachal has immense potential for Herbal plants and State Government is aiming at making Himachal an Herbal State of the country. 45 lakh herbal plants of 91 species would be planted in the year to achieve this target and their scientific extraction would also be ensured.  Projects worth crores of rupees are being implemented in Kangra, Una, Chamba, Kullu, Sirmour and tribal districts of Lahul-Spiti and Kinnaur for developing herbal plants with the assistance of National Medicine Plant Board. Interception and Awareness Centre has been also established at Sundarnagar in Mandi district for non timber forest produce.

Forest fire is a great scourge and destroys forest wealth preserved since years. The State Government has developed Satellite Based Fire Alert System in collaboration with National Remote Sensing Centre, Hyderabad to protect forest from fires. This system would help in providing information regarding forest fires to the concerned Forest Guard and other officials immediately on real time basis through SMS. This would help in effective management and control of forest fires. Himachal is a pioneer in this innovation.

With the conservation and preservation of forest wealth and environment, the State Government is also emphasising on providing people with easy and scientific access to the forest produce, thereby making them participants in conservation. Timber Distribution Rules have been amended and notified for the purpose in December, 2013. Now TD would be made available to the right holders after 15 years for construction and after 5 years for repair of the house instead of earlier period of 30 and 15 years respectively. The quantum of timber for construction of house has been raised from 3 cubic metre to 7 cubic metre and for repair of house from          1 cubic meter to 3 cubic metre.  

Due to vast spread of forests and proximity of human habitations to the forest, man-animal conflict is inevitable and State Government has considerably enhanced compensation for loss caused by wild animals. In case of death of a human being, the compensation has been enhanced from         Rs. One lakh to Rs. One lakh Fifty Thousand, in case of grievous injury from 33,000 to 75,000 and for simple injury from Rs. 5000 to Rs.10,000 from this financial year. Compensation for loss of livestock and other animals have also been suitably enhanced.

State Government would also construct 80 'Van Sarovars' so as to increase the availability and replenishment of water resources in the forests. Efforts are also being made to promote Nature Tourism in a big way and Forest Rest Houses would be developed by the department in collaboration with Tourism Department and HP Forest Corporation.

 

 

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