C Shivakumar
It also stated that 23 of the 26 test-checked
divisions, the survival rate of plantations is less than 40 per cent in
majority (59 per cent) of the plantations.
Chennai:
Tamil
Nadu’s forest and tree cover declined and the state has not prepared its own
forest policy despite passage of five years since recommendation of the
National Forest Commission to frame it, according to Comptroller and Auditor
General of India’s report.
The
report which was released by principal accountant generals Suhasini Srinivasan
and S Murugiah at the office of the The Principal Accountant General here on
Wednesday stated that the state could achieve only 22 per cent coverage of the
forest and tree cover against targeted 25 per cent by 2007.
The
report said that against the Union Planning Commission’s recommendation of four
per cent allocation for forestry and wildlife sector, the state’s allocation
for the 11th five-year plan was 1.51 per cent only.
“The
state government released Rs 693 crore only for forestry activities in the four
years (2007-11) out of allocation of Rs 1.285 crore for the plan period
2007-12,” the report stated.
Arrears
of lease rent of rs 105.20 crore remained to be collected from three public
sector undertakings under the control of department. The progress of declaring
the land as reserve forest was tardy and 1,12,386 hectares of land remained to
be notified, the report said.
Interestingly,
as per the records of Forest Survey of India, forest and tree cover of the
state showed a marginal decrease from 28,665 square kilometer in 2005 to 28,306
square metre in 2009 and the decrease was mainly due to decrease in tree cover
area from 5,621 square kilometer to 4,968 square kilometer despite spending of
Rs 471.61 crore during 2002-07 on social and farm forestry activities.
The
report also pointed out that in 12 of the 26 test-checked divisions, 9547 cases
of encroachment involving an area of 10,197 hectares of forest land were
pending eviction as of March 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment