Increase forest cover to 33 per cent, CM tells Forest Department
The Hindu
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday advised the Forest Department to work towards expanding the forest cover from 20 per cent to 33 per cent and promised to provide all support for making it happen. If the forest area went up, the benefits would be manifold like rain, farm productivity improvement and so on.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday advised the Forest Department to work towards expanding the forest cover from 20 per cent to 33 per cent and promised to provide all support for making it happen. If the forest area went up, the benefits would be manifold like rain, farm productivity improvement and so on.
The forest cover in the State now wasaround 20-22 per cent but ideally it should be about 33 per cent. Human beings had to take blame for the decline in forest cover, which had affected wildlife and increased man-animal conflict, he argued.
Speaking after inaugurating the valedictory of 69th Wildlife Week organised by the Forest Department at the Karnataka Police Academy here, the Chief Minister said despite the depleted forest area, the State was first in elephant numbers and second in tiger numbers. The State has 563 tigers and 6,395 elephants, he said, adding that human beings needed to learn to live with animals as it was their responsibility for wildlife conservation.
He advised the Forest department to ensure that the saplings planted every year survived and grew into trees for expanding the forest cover. “If the survival rate is around 70 per cent, why has the forest area not increased despite plantations every year,” Mr. Siddaramaiah asked.
An audit on tree plantation was essential to find out the truth, he felt.
Blames BJP govt.
Blaming the previous BJP government for not completing the work on installing rail barricades for addressing conflict situations, Mr. Siddaramaiah said in his earlier term he had installed rail barricades on 312 km as against 640 km. If the entire area was barricaded, the conflict would have been addressed to a large extent, he claimed.
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