Srinagar, May 10 (Scoop News) – Underlining afforestation significant measure to regenerate degraded forests, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah Tuesday called for large scale plantation under Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA).
Chairing here the first meeting of the Governing Body of CAMPA of which he is the Chairperson, the Chief Minister said that forest nurseries need to be strengthened and upgraded to produce adequate planting material to cater to the needs on this count.
Omar Abdullah said spending on chain link fencing for protection of plantations should gradually reduce while plantation and rejuvenation of depleted forests should be the focused area under the CAMPA.
The Chief Minister directed for satellite imaging of the forest cover, plantation programme, survival percentage and other aspects besides third party monitoring to regularly study the progress under the CAMPA. He said continuous monitoring of various activities would help in achieving the goals successfully and transparently.
Omar Abdullah asked the Forest Department to work out linkage with developed countries in the forest sector for knowledge and expert opinion exchange regarding faster growth of trees and harnessing of rich bio-diversity of the State.
Minister for Finance, Abdul Rahim Rather, Minister for Forests, Mian Altaf Ahmad, Minister of State for Power, Shabir Ahmad Khan, Chief Secretary, MAdhav Lal, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, B. B. Vyas, Commissioner Secretary Forests, Shant Manu, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Sudhanshu Pandey, Chief Principal Conservator Forests and other senior officers were present in the meeting.
In a PowerPoint presentation the Commissioner Secretary Forests explained various aspects of the CAMPA. He said that the CAMPA in the State was notified on November 2009 and Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah formally launched the programme onDecember 7, 2010 at Shopian.
He said compensatory afforestation, conservation, protection, regeneration, management and consolidation are the main objectives of CAMPA. Environment services, provision of fodder, wood, non-timber forest products, fuel, water, grazing, tourism, wildlife protection, life support, climate regulation, disease control, flood moderation, detoxification, carbon, sequestration and health of soil, air and water regimes are its other aims.
The CAMPA also envisages non-material benefits in the form of eco-systems, recreations, aesthetics, education, bio-diversity, nutrient cycling, etc.
The meeting discussed criteria for site selection and activity prioritization, operational guidelines and achievements registered since its inception. It was stated that during 2010-11 as many as 2885 hectares have been treated under CAMPA while 18.30 lakh saplings have been planted and 44.24 lakh numbers of planting material produced in the nurseries. The soil conservation work has been conducted on 21846 cubic metres.
The meeting was told that during 2010-11 an amount of Rs. 17.43 crores have been spent on CAMPA while as the current plan has been fixed at Rs. 41.64 crores with a target of treating over 4000 hectares and raising 33.24 lakh plants.