With the completion of a month, the Hariyar Chhattisgarh Campaign launched by Union Environment and Forests Minister Prakash Javadekar in Naya Raipur on August 3 is gaining momentum.
As many as 8.25 Crore saplings have been planted under the campaign till date. It is around 85,000 more than the target of the Forest Department, officials stated.
Notably, Chief Minister Raman Singh had urged each citizen to plant atleast four saplings in the ongoing greening exercise. It sums to planting 10 crore saplings by the present population of 2.5 crore across the State.
Singh has given different target to every Government Department. The maximum aim of planting 40 crore saplings was set for the Forest Department.
The Panchayat and Rural Development Department was given a target of 2 crore plants followed with a target of 25 crore 50 lakh for Housing and Environment Department, 6 lakh for School Education Department and 4 lakh 20,000 for Women and Child Development Department.
Notably, 'Hariyar Chhattisgarh Mega Plantation Drive 2015' was held in Naya Raipur based Botanical Garden on August 3 wherein Union Minister for Forest and Environment Prakash Javadekar had released 'Forest Atlas' published by State Government's Forest Department.
This geo-referenced forest atlas covers the natural forest resources of Chhattisgarh along with the depiction of river-valley areas, forest division-wise classification of soil, geographical condition and depth of water-bodies, non-wooden forest produce, bamboo producing area, and rich biodiversity of the State.
This atlas will prove beneficial in designing action plan for development and management of forests. Wildlife conservation area and proposed elephant corridor has also been shown in the atlas. The information related to State's forest cover has been collected from Forest Survey of India Institute's digital data of 50,000 scale, and database available in Chhattisgarh, officials stated.
The entire atlas is based on the formal and verified records and documents.
Significantly, it may be recalled that Chhattisgarh has as many as 6750 ‘Eco Clubs’ supported by Centre’s ‘National Green Core’ (NGC) programme and National Environment Awareness Campaign (NEAC) programme, according to the 2014-15 annual report of the Union Ministry of Environment & Forests.
The NEAC was launched in mid-1986 with the objective of creating environmental awareness at the national level. The Ministry embarked upon a major initiative for creating environmental awareness among children by formulating NGC in 2001-02, it stated.
In order to strengthen monitoring mechanism of NGC programme, the Ministry is in the process of establishing ‘Management Information System’ (MIS) which will open up vistas in sharing and assessing the information on HGC among all shareholders.
The MIS reporting and monitoring would interactive and creative in ensuring NGC mobility and services, the report stated.
There are a total of 92,310 Eco-clubs in the country under the NGC programme with the financial assistance of Rs 24.88 crores.