Excelsior correspondent
JAMMU, May 21: Secretary to the Commissioner, Forestry, Ecology and Environment Department Sanjeev Verma today held an online meeting to review the progress of planting 5 lakh plants each, in as part of the Smart City Mission, in the cities of Jammu and Srinagar, in addition to evaluating the implementation of Central Programs sponsored like CAMPA of the Department of Forests and Social Forests.
The meeting was attended by the Principal Chief Forestry Officer, Mr. Mohit Gera; Director of Environment, Ecology and Remote Sensing, Dr. Neelu Gera; Chief Wildlife Custodian Suresh Gupt; Additional Senior Conservator of Kashmir Forests; Chief Conservator of the Forest, Jammu; Chief Conservator of Forests, Planning and Projects; General Managers of Smart City Mission Cities Jammu and Srinagar, Additional Deputy Commissioners of Jammu and Srinagar Districts.
The meeting was informed that the Forestry Department has prepared a detailed plan as part of the Green J&K campaign in which 5 lakh plants each have been saved for planting in the smart cities of Jammu and Srinagar. The department will plant these saplings in the identified areas and will also provide saplings to various other organizations for planting in the areas designated under the mission. In addition, the Department of Social Forestry will also contribute to this planting campaign, especially in institutions.
Regarding the progress made in April under CAPEX, CAMPA and other CSS programs, he was informed that the actual planting season begins in July in the Jammu region and in November in the Kashmir region. In addition, at present all forestry divisions are all ready for the planting campaign and enough plants have already been grown and maintained in government nurseries in addition to electronic tenders for works, purchase of materials is also in progress. The meeting was also briefed on innovative low-cost greening interventions undertaken by the forestry department. In addition, seeds covered with soil, fertilizer, pesticides are prepared in the form of seed balls and deployed in the most difficult terrain such as landslide areas, steep slopes and stabilized landfills.
He was further informed during the meeting that within the framework of the “One forest ranger – One village” initiative, a forest ranger will be in charge of a village within his jurisdiction for the purposes of greening, biodiversity conservation by. more of its conventional forest protection work. In addition, each forest division (territorial) will occupy 35 villages to increase green coverage in these villages and a total of 1000 villages will be covered in 2021-2022 and Rs. 1 crore will be spent, for this purpose, from the plan budget.