RAIPUR: Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, on Sunday, virtually launched Chief Minister’s Tree Plantation Promotion Scheme which aims to protect the environment and increase income of farmers, panchayats and forest management committees.
”This important scheme of the state government will definitely change the picture of villages and forests. This will give a new source of income to the farmers and their financial condition will improve. There will be greenery again in our villages. Special attention has been paid to remove the practical difficulties, which were faced in the past due to the rules made for cutting trees. Now farmers will not have to take permission in future for cutting trees on their private land”, said chief minister on the occasion.
Briefing about the newly launched scheme, chief minister said that this scheme has also been linked with Rajiv Gandhi Kisan Nyay Yojana. As per the scheme, farmers who have taken paddy crop in Kharif year 2020, if they plant trees in their fields instead of paddy crop, then they will be given an incentive amount at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre per year for the next three years. Under the scheme, preparations have been made by the forest department to plant more than 99 lakh saplings this year, along with the distribution of 2.27 crore saplings. The campaign will surely be a success with public participation.
He said, “If commercial plantation is done from the amount available with the gram panchayats, then in case of successful plantation after one year, incentive amount will be given to the gram panchayats concerned at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre. Similarly, if tree plantation is done on the revenue land on commercial basis from the amount available with joint forest management committees, then like panchayat, incentive amount will be given to the concerned committee at the rate of Rs 10,000 per acre after one year. The right to cut and sell the trees will be with the committees concerned”.
Forest minister Mohammad Akbar said, “The scheme launched by the state government will prove to be a revolutionary scheme in the direction of environmental improvement of Chhattisgarh. This will encourage plantation on private land and people will get many benefits including improved environment in villages and increase in ground water level.”
On the occasion, chief minister performed Bhoomipujan of Biodiversity Park to be developed in 20 acre land in Funda village under Durg forest division. The park will have over 3,000 saplings of more than 100 species planted using Japanese Miyawaki technique. Besides, he also launched the book ‘Butterfly Treasure of Chhattisgarh’ which describes 170 species of butterflies found in Chhattisgarh. Author of the book chief conservator of forests Sanjita Gupta said that this is the first book on the species of butterflies found in Chhattisgarh. In this book, detailed information has been given about the structure, life cycle, food, behaviour and importance of butterflies.
