Chief Minister Harish Rawat on Tuesday directed the officials concerned to draft an action plan for covering all the State's Van Panchayat under Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA) or the Green India Mission in three years.
While presiding over a meeting on Tuesday, the Chief Minister also instructed the Revenue Department to start the process of elections in Van Panchayats.
He also stressed that the Van Panchayats should be clearly demarcated. The Forest Department should activate nurseries manned by women. The CM instructed that those Van Panchayats which are not covered under JICA and CAMPA should be taken up under the Green India Mission. Stating that Uttarakhand is the only State with Van Panchayats, he stressed on the need for strengthening the same. Rawat said, "We need to focus mainly on three issues- mitigating human-wildlife conflict, conservation of water and development of nurseries for mixed forests. Additionally, focus should also be accorded to pasture development. Nurseries run by women should be modernised and made operational. Priority should be accorded to identifying those Van Panchayats which need immediate assistance," he said.
The CM further said that a major change can be brought about if the forest department works properly on Van Panchayats. Tree plantation should be undertaken in accordance with local requirements after agroclimatic zone categorisation of Mana, Niti, Darma, Juhar, Vyas and Ban area in Chamoli district. Stressing on the need for coming out of the conventional conception of tree plantation, Rawat directed officials to accord importance to Timru, Tejpatta, walnut and Thuner among others for tree plantation.
It is pertinent to mention here that according to official data, there are a total of 12,089 Van Panchayats comprising about 5.45 lakh hectare forest area in Uttarakhand. These Van Panchayats have been accorded approval for playing the role of executing agency in forestry works. Chief secretary Shatrughan Singh, chief principal secretary to the CM, Rakesh Sharma, Revenue secretary DS Garbyal and the State's principal chief conservator of forests (PCCF) Veena Sekhri along with other officials concerned were also present in the meeting.