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| Environmentalists term hyped plantation drives farce | | 'Not single sapling planted to replace a smuggled tree' | | Javaid Naikoo
Srinagar, Mar 26: At a time when state government is spending crores of rupees annually under its much lauded CAMPA Scheme for plantation in jungles across the state, environmentalists maintain that not a single tree of previous plantation drives can be found in jungles which became victims of greed and gluttony of notorious timber smugglers.
As data collected from Forest department of Kashmir reveals that there are 4,877. 62 hectares of forest land under illegal occupation of land Mafias in various forest compartments across Kashmir among which South Kashmir's district Anantnag tops the list, noted environmentalists of the state said that measures taken by the state government to save green gold of kashmir is just a show off and negligence in the matter can prove hazardous in the long run in case both government and common masses of Kashmir did not pay due attention to save remaining forests in the right manner.
Calling the ongoing plantation measures of state government under its much lauded CAMPA scheme useless, Omprakash Vidyarthi informed early times that he has went across many jungle compartments across the state in previous years in connection with his works but so far he has not seen a single conifer tree which could have replaced one smuggled tree by smugglers in any jungle compartment of the state. "It takes one hundred years for a conifer tree to grow up, replace one smuggled tree and during those 100 years it needs complete protection which is lacking due to waywardness in the system prevailing in state." said environmentalist Omprakash Vidyarthi
According to Shakeel Romshoo another environmentalist, plantation measures launched by government and non government agencies in the state are unscientific and hazardous instead of fruitful in the long run as has proved recently in which some of the plant species planted in habitation areas after analyzing were declared more hazardous than many man made harmful substances.
He said that government officials posted in jungle areas having no scientific knowledge of the work instead of creating an environment for growth of conifer trees which actually is a jungle tree, they plant fast growing tress just to please and impress their higher ups and fulfill the document work only. "Instead of spending crores annually on ill planned plantation measures, state government need to spend money on researching the subject and create an environment in which those plants are planted which grow in jungles, keep social forestry restrict to habitation areas only and do not mixing Jungle trees with those which can be planted on road sides etc."Said Shakeel Romshoo It noteworthy that as per details collected,total forest area of the State is 20230 square kms and according to government records so far 11151.57 hectares have been diverted for non-forestry use in terms of J&K Forest Conservation Act up to December 31, 2012 and during the year 2010-2011, 18.30 lakh plants have been planted under CAMPA forest scheme, while as 29.73 lakh plants and 14 lakh plants were planted up to December 2012 under the scheme for ensuring afforestation in the State, besides plantation operations have also been carried out by Social Forestry Department, State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) and Wild Life Protection Department (WLPD) which goes around 7.58 lakh and 1.40 lakh plants planted during 2011-2012 . |
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