For another two decades lantana weed will continue to be a menace in the forests of Himachal Pradesh as Forest Minister Thakur Singh Bharmouri on Friday said, at least 20 more years were required to eradicate the weed.
lantana, an exotic variety of flowering shrub, does not allow natural vegetation to grow in the affected area.
Replying to a query raised by BJP legislator Rajeev Bindal in the question hour, Bharmouri apprised the house that more than 230,000 hectares of forests in Himachal Pradesh had been plagued by the menace of this exotic weed.
Quoting the findings of a survey conducted by Forest department in 2015-16, Bharmouri said that a total of 235,492 hectares of forests was affected by the lantana. Informing about the steps being taken by the state government to curb the menace, Bharmouri said that the lantana eradication drive had been started in 2013 and a sum of Rs 82.52 crore had been spent on the rehabilitation of the lantana infested forest land. He claimed that Rs 22 crore had been spent on lantana eradication in 2016-17 only-
Bharmouri told in the last four years 42129 hectare land had been brought under lantana eradication drive and out of this land new plants had been sown in 2363 hectare land.
He said that lantana eradication was a long term drive as it takes at least four years to rehabilitate the infested land, after the weed is uprooted from it. He said repeated cleansing of land was required to make the land completely free from the weed.
He said the state had adopted cut-root stock method to clear the forest land of the weed and fast growing plants were being grown at the cleared land patches.
He said that Kangra, the largest district of the state was worst affected with 114,311 hectares land under lantana threat while the state capital Shimla is least affected with a meager 501 hectare under lantana threat.
"Eradication of lantana is also being carried under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, besides Himachal Pradesh Forest Eco-System and Climate Proofing Project and the Himachal Mid-Himalayan Watershed Development Project", said Bharmoui.
Earlier, expressing concern over the spread of lantana, BJP legislator and former Health Minister Rajeev Bindal apprehended that the lantana would cover around 75 percent of land mass of the state in next 20 years, if it continued to spread at the same pace.