Unparalleled idea
The forest cover across Jammu and Kashmir is depleting fast and ignoring the issue further could have proven catastrophic for the entire region. Though the brazen plunder of forest cover had been witnessed for many years no effort whatsoever was made during the past two decades to help restore it.
Since Jammu and Kashmir is dependent on its forest cover for many reasons the issue needs complete dedication so that the restorations process is initiated at an earliest and that too involving grass root level institutions so that the process is completed with least effort and involvement of official machinery and government resources.
For ensuring the increase in green cover the administration has come up with a novel idea of identifying 1500 villages for greening of lands outside forests in 2022-23 by providing free saplings, seeds balls and grass slips to Village Panchayats for planting on village common land, kahcharai and other wastelands.
This low-cost innovative method of greening with the involvement of all the stakeholders especially Panchayats, BMCs, JFMs, NGOs and other social and government institutions and departments. The programme also takes involvement of local communities and their local governing institutions to envisage and cover villages under low-cost greening interventions.
The scheme titled ‘One Beat Guard’ is responsible to achieve the desired and well-planned goal which shall cover one revenue village in achieving objectives of greening that area and operations shall be carried out with the collaboration and coordination of respective Village Panchayats/BMCs etc, who will monitor the entire process for next 3 to 5 years.
The government is working on a well-planned green future for J&K with low-cost greening methods for the greening of non-forest areas. The raising of trees and grasses is facilitated on the community lands by the local communities for their benefit. The initiative can also meet the needs of the people for small timber, fuelwood and grasses from non-forest lands besides reducing the pressure on the Forests on account of grazing by increasing the production of the grass and fodder outside the forest area.
The initiative also aims to promote Agroforestry- land use management system in which trees or shrubs are grown around or among crops or pastureland. Any Nation’s strength predominantly rests in its natural resources. India ranks among the top twelve mega-diverse countries in the world.
Jammu and Kashmir too harbours huge diversity in vegetation due to its geographic and altitudinal variation. It also has the highest diversity of herbs in the country.
According to the official figures of India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021, a biennial Publication of Forest Survey of India (FSI), an organization under the Ministry of Environment, Forest & Climate Change, J&K has the highest carbon stock per unit of forest area in the country.
According to reports in the year 2019, the total forest area in J&K was 10.46 percent which has increased to 39.66 percent in the year 2020. And if the process of increasing the green cover continues with the same zeal and zest as was shown over the last many months now, the situation will definitely change for the good.
KV Network
