Forest Minister Kunwar Vijay Shah has said that there has been an increase of 63 percent in the area of ??very dense forest in Madhya Pradesh. In the year 2005, there was 4239 square kilometer of very dense forest area, which has now increased to 6665 square kilometer. This has been mentioned in the report published by the Forest Survey of India, Dehradun in the year 2021.
Forest Minister Dr. Shah informed that forest committees have been formed in 15 thousand 608 villages of the state for public participation in forest management of 79 lakh 70 thousand hectare forest area. The participation of dependent communities in the management of forests has yielded positive results. Where on the one hand the natural forests in the world are under threat. Even in such a situation, thousands of village communities in the state along with the forest department have done the work of converting the degraded forest areas into forest areas with good forest cover. The people of the state, especially the tribal communities living near the forest areas, have played an important role in the increase in forest cover.
Forest Minister Shah said that it has been decided to give 20 percent share of revenue to the forest committees constituted in the state. With the establishment of this system, the forest committees will be financially strong. Especially the tribal class will get the benefit of this. He said that in view of the demand to convert the forest villages into revenue villages, an in-principle agreement has been obtained from the revenue department on the instructions of Chief Minister Shri Shivraj Singh Chouhan. Now the process will be started as soon as possible.
The forests of Madhya Pradesh are famous throughout the country in terms of production of precious timber like teak, sal as well as bamboo. Along with this, it has also become a leading state in the matter of conservation of wildlife. The state has the distinction of "Tiger State" with the presence of maximum 526 tigers. The presence of highest 3421 leopards in the country, 2 thousand gharials and 772 wolves in the country are the centre of attraction for tourists.
